HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



123 



Araclmoidiscus for ten months, and the tube had 

 been in constant service ; still it is more probable 

 that these specimens had become detached from the 

 tube, than that they had lived in the pool. 



THE AMERICAN WILD CAT. 

 {Lynx r uf us, Raf.) 



1/lOR weeks I had been watching the daily move- 

 JL ments of a family of ground squirrels {Tamias 

 striatys), that racing to and fro along my garden 

 fence, and scampering, when disturbed, to their 

 burrows in the adjoining hill-side, had afforded me 

 much amusement. Persistently I had followed 

 them up, and once, with shovel and trowel, had 

 brought light to their well-concealed nest, in spite 

 of the intricate windings of the passage, three yards 

 long, that led to it. Their life history was well 

 nigh unravelled, and I was at last brought to envy 

 them, for the double reason that they seemed never 

 to want for anything, and had no enemies. Surely 

 they were to be envied; but to-day I learned my 

 my error in this latter respect (it is never safe to 

 jump at conclusions in zoological matters), and 

 while lying, half-concealed, in the long grass, 

 fringing a narrow belt of woodland, saw the little 

 squirrels (they are not true squirrels) in great 

 distress, and met with an undoubted enemy of my 

 envied friends. 



Half crouching on the trunk of a lately hewn 

 chestnut-tree, was a fierce wild cat, glaring upon 

 the frightened squirrels as they rushed to their 

 nests, while he held in his murderous jaws one of 

 their number. I had no means of capturing this 

 fine specimen of our rarest mammal, and so had but 

 to remain quiet and watch him— the best thing, by 

 the way, a naturalist can do, nine times in ten. 

 Presently the cat let the squirrel fall from his jaws, 

 and then placing his fore paw upon it, he gave a 

 long, low growl, very unlike any sound made by the 

 domestic cat. It was repeated at short intervals, 

 and not being responded to, as far as I could detect, 

 the cat again caught up the dead squirrel, and 

 bounded into the thicket. I followed as well as I 

 could, and soon came up with him. The cat was 

 now crouching at the foot of an enormous oak, and 

 with much snarling and low mutterings, was tearing 

 in pieces and devouring the little ground squirrel. 

 In a few minutes nearly every trace of the latter 

 had disappeared, and the cat, apparently well 

 satisfied with his meal, curled himself up in a little 

 patch of sunshine, within a yard of where he had 

 been eating, and purposed, then and there, to take 

 a quiet nap. I quietly withdrew without disturb- 

 ing him, as I think, and hurried home for my gun. 

 With great care I returned to the spot, to secure 



him for a museum, but he had left for parts un- 

 known. Perhaps I may yet find him. 



It is many years since the last cougar {Felts 

 concolor) was killed in New Jersey ; and the 

 common wild cat, or short-tailed Bay Lynx, is now 

 probably our rarest mammal. His habits are those 

 of small cats the world over ; or at least, such as 

 inhabit wooded tracts of country. Unlike some of 

 our mammals, whose habits have changed with the 

 changes wrought by the felling of forests and 

 general cultivation of the country, the wild cat re- 

 mains just as he was in the days of the Red Indian, 

 and the prehistoric folk before them, if they were, 

 indeed, a different people. 



During the day, as a rule, the wild cat remains at 

 home, either in or on a tree, and sometimes in a 

 hole at the roots of a large tree, when such trees 

 are growing upon a wooded hill-side. Such a lo- 

 cality, a well-wooded hill-side, with a southern 

 exposure, is the best locality for finding and study- 

 ing all of our small mammals, and the majority of 

 our birds. I have never met with a litter of 

 their kittens, but imagine (something a naturalist 

 ought very seldom to do, for even the "scientific 

 use of the imagination" is something difficult to. 

 accomplish) they are very like those of our tame 

 tabby, only uniform in colour. 



In winter, with a good fall of snow and a full, 

 moon, the wild cat becomes a more interesting 

 creature to study, as stealthily creeping over the 

 snow, and seeking cover in every shadow, he steals 

 upon unsuspecting rabbits {Lepus sylvaticus), or occa- 

 sional mice, that have roused themselves from their 

 hibernating slumbers. Wandering on to creek- 

 banks, they sometimes tear open the dome-shaped 

 nests of the musk rat {Fiber zibethicus), but I have 

 never known them to eat this animal. Of the 

 musk rat I trust soon to have a good deal to say ; 

 and if the wild cat that I saw this morning has not 

 quitted the neighbourhood, I will let the readers of 

 Science-Gossip know more of him. 



Chas. C. Abbott, M.D. 



A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



A MONG the many really important scientific 

 ^*- books which have appeared since Christmas, 

 we do not think any will be found more useful to . 

 the student and general reader alike than Dr. M. 

 C. Cooke's work on "Pungi: their Nature, Influ- 

 ence, and Uses" (London: Henry S. King & Co.). 

 It forms one of the well-known " International 

 Scientific Series," and, with the exception perhaps 

 of Mr. Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Socio- 

 logy," is the best. The work professes to be edited 

 by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., by whom it was 

 intended originally to have been written. It requires , 



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