234 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



SYSTEMATIC AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



FELIDiE. 



Lynx boeealis canadensis (Gray). Canada Lyux. (Esk. Tukhtii-Iik). 



In a series of fifteen adult skulls the largest has a basi-cranial length of ISS"^™ and a zygo- 

 matic width of 95™™. It is presumably that of a male individual, but in this, as in the majority 

 of the remaining species to be considered, the sex was unfortunately not ascertained. 



The largest skull in the National Museum collection (G216) from Peel Eiver has a length* of 

 115"™ and a width of 89"" only. It is, however, a female. A skull of the European Lynx from 

 Sweden (1034) greatly exceeds in size the Alaskan skull previously mentioned. Its length is 144""" 

 and its width 112"'"'. 



The skull of the Canada Lynx may be distinguished at a glance from those of other Amer- 

 ican lynxes by the shape of the visible i^arts of the presphenoid and the position of the anterior 

 condylar foramen. The presphenoid is broadly flask-shaped, and the anterior condylar foramen 

 looks downward and is not confluent with foramen lacerum posterius. 



In other American lynxes the foramina refei'red to are confluent, and the visible i)ortion of 

 the presphenoid is linear or triangular in outline. The European Lynx agrees with the Canada 

 Lyi^x in these details. 



List of specimens and measiinmenls. 



Biographical notes. — The range of the lynx is well defined by the extent of the forest area in 

 Alaska. It is a tree-loving species and rarely leaves the shelter of woods even to extend its forays 

 into the alder thickets which scantily replace the trees near the coast of Bering Sea and the Arctic 

 Ocean. Owing partly to this fondness for a wooded country it is unknown on the islands of 

 Bering Sea, and only reaches the shore of this sea at one point, where the spruce forest extends 

 to the coast at the head of Norton Sound. On the Arctic coast it is found near the shore at one 

 point near the head of Kotzebue Sound. Its range north is coincident with that of the trees, and 

 reaches about latitude 71°. 



Lynxes are most numerous along the water-courses of the interior, where close thickets of 

 cottonwoods, alders, and willows, with spruces and white birches irregularly distributed, afl'ord 

 them fine shelter. In these thickets, also, their favorite prey, the northern rabbit, is most 

 numerous. During winter the snow bears good evidence of their habits. Their tracks lead from 

 thicket to thicket, and, at times, from one piece of woods to another, but their irregular wandering- 

 is mainly confined to the friendly shelter of the trees. 



*Here, and on subsequent pages, the terms "length" and " width," as applied to skulls, refer to the basi-cranial 

 length and the zygomatic width respectively. The basi-cranial length is measured from the anterior margin of the 

 central pair of incisive alveoli to the center of a line joining the surfaces of the two occipital condyles. The zygo- 

 matic -width is the greatest width between the opposite zygomatic arches. 



