have suggested the name of the naturalists, _concolor_.
_Discolor_ was formerly in use; but the other has been generally
adopted.

There are few wild animals so regular in their colour as the cougar:
very little variety has been observed among different specimens. Some
naturalists speak of spotted cougars--that is, having spots that may be
seen in a certain light. Upon young cubs, such markings do appear; but
they are no longer visible on the full-grown animal. The cougar of
mature age is of a tawny red colour, almost uniform over the whole body,
though somewhat paler about the face and the parts underneath. This
colour is not exactly the tawny of the lion; it is more of a reddish
hue--nearer to what is termed calf-colour.

The cougar is far from being a well-shaped creature: it appears
disproportioned. Its back is long and hollow; and its tail does not
taper so gracefully as in some other animals of the cat kind. Its legs
are short and stout; and although far from clumsy in appearance, it does
not possess the graceful _tournure_ of body so characteristic of some of
its congeners. Though considered the representative of the lion in the
New World, its resemblance to the royal beast is but slight; its colour
seems to be the only title it has to such an honour. For the rest, it
is much more akin to the tigers, jaguars, and true panthers. Cougars
are rarely more than six feet in length, including the tail, which is
usually about a third of that measurement.

The range of the animal is very extensive. It is known from Paraguay to
the Great Lakes of North America. In no part of either continent is it
to be seen every day, because it is for the most part not only nocturnal
in its activity, but one of those fierce creatures that, fortunately, do
not exist in large numbers. Like others of the genus, it is solitary in
its habits, and at the approach of civilisation betakes itself to the
remoter parts of the forest. Hence the cougar, although found in all of
the United States, is a rare animal everywhere, and seen only at long
intervals in the mountain-valleys, or in other difficult places of the
forest. The appearance of a cougar is sufficient to throw any
neighbourhood into an excitement similar to that which would be produced
by the chase of a mad dog.

It is a splendid tree-climber. It can mount a tree with the agility of
a cat; and although so large an animal, it climbs by means of its
claws--not by huggin