A cougar is one of the most secretive animals in the wilds. Rarely are individuals seen by man. They are difficult to trap, principally because they are such wide-ranging animals and partly because they prefer to feed on fresh deer meat and hence are not apt to be attracted to trap bait. For these same reasons they are difficult to poison. By using poisoned hamburger, a government agent did poison one near Leavenworth, Chelan County. The principal method of killing cougar is to hunt them with packs of especially trained hounds which pursue the cougar until it takes refuge in a tree or other supposed place of safety, where it is shot. A common gait is a swift, smooth trot in which the body is kept low and the tail droops with the terminal part bent backwards. A wild cougar seen near Leavenworth, Chelan County, traveled with effortless speed until fired upon. At the sound of the shot it made two great bounds and disappeared into the brush fringing a canyon. [Illustration: FIG. 74. Distribution of the cougar in Washington. A. _Felis concolor oregonensis._ B. _Felis concolor missoulensis._] Although the cougar is a large and powerful carnivore it almost never makes unprovoked attacks upon man. An exception was the cougar that partially devoured a thirteen-year old boy near Lake Chelan, Chelan County (Finley, 1925: 197-199). The hunting range of an individual cougar is many miles in extent. These ranges are traveled periodically and any particular area may be visited regularly every few days. The cougars may travel many miles each night in search of deer. Their ranges must overlap to a certain extent for as many as 12 have been taken from a single drainage area. Over most of the year they are solitary but breeding females may attract several males and hunters occasionally capture a female and several males at one locality. Breeding occurs in almost any month of the year. The young are cared for by the female and follow her for perhaps a year. Young individuals have been taken at the same time and in the same locality as an adult female and several adult males that supposedly were breeding. There are from one to three young in a litter. For the first months of their life cougar kittens are spotted. In this they differ from the young of the bobcat which are plain or slightly mottled and do not become spotted until later in life. Cougar kittens differ further from bobcat kittens in possessing a long tail. The pelage of the cougar is short and of no value as fur although the skins often are sold at a good price as trophies when prepared as rugs. =Felis concolor oregonensis= Rafinesque _Felix [sic] oregonensis_ Rafinesque, Atlantic Journal, 1:62, 1832. _Felis hippolestes olympus_ Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 11:220, July 15, 1897 (type from Lake Cushman, Mason County, Washington). _Felis oregonensis_ Stone, Science, n. s., 9:35, January 6, 1899.