SOME DISTINCTIVE CRANIAL CHARACTERS OF THE CANADA 



L"^NX. 



BV FESiCDERICK IV. TRIE. 



Xo one who has examined the literature relating to the lynxes can 

 fail to be struck with tlie dissonance of opinions regarding the number 

 of existing species. Gray, with characteristic insistence upon minor 

 characters, recognizes eight species, and, going still further, divides the 

 genus Lyncus into two subgenera, Lynx and Cerraria. Mivart, on the 

 other hand, in his work upon the cat, will not even admit the genus 

 Lynx, and writes: "The lynxes * * * cannot be separated ofi" as a, 

 nominally distinct group or genus."* He also quotes Prof. Alphouse 

 3Iilne-Edwards as saying: "Whether there are several species in the 

 northern hemisphere, or only races, is a question which I cannot answer. 

 There are certainly- distinct forms, but before ranking them as species it 

 would be necessary to determine what variations are due to climate, age, 

 sex," &c. 



Prof. Allen, after an elaborate study of the skulls of American car- 

 nivores, in 1S7C, proposes to reduce all the nominal species of American 

 lynxes to varieties of L. rufusA Eegarding the Canada lynx he saj's: 

 "Its supposed greater size and larger limbs are also due almost wholly 

 to the greater fullness and length of the pelage, the fresh carcass (in a 

 specimen from Houltou, Me.), with the skin remoN'ed, giving the same 

 measurements as in L. rufiis (a specimen from Colorado)." 



Prof. Baird, in his "Mammals of North America," makes L. maculatus 

 a variety of L. riifus, and recognizes three species, L. rufus, fasciatus, 

 and canadensis. Professor Flower, in the ninth edition of the Encyclo- 

 pedia Britannica, writes in favor of a single species for all the lynxes, 

 American and Eurasian. 



I shall not attempt in this essay to harmonize these widely variant 

 opinions. My wish is simply to call attention to the apparent value of 

 certain cranial characters which are of aid in distinguishing some speci- 

 mens of American lynxes from others. I believe that the same distinc- 

 tions obtain for the Eurasian lynxes, but the material at command is 

 too limited to be of much service. 



" The specific distinctness of L. canadensis, the most northern type," 

 writes Professor Allen,| " has been hitherto scarcely questioned, in con- 

 sequence of its supposed larger size, larger limbs, longer, softer i^elage, 

 longer ear-tufts, more indistinct markings, and generally lighter or 

 grayer color. The longer ear-tufts correlate with the longer, softer 

 pelage that always characterizes the boreal representatives having a wide 

 latitudinal range. The diflerence in coloration is not greater than, or 

 even so great as, that which obtains between fasciatns and rii/us, or be- 

 tween fasciatiis and maculatus, which forms naturalists now seem dis- 

 posed to refer to one and the same species under the name of X. rufusP' 



* Mivart, "The Cat," p.' 4-^4. t Bull. Geol. Surv., II, ld76, 324. 1 1. c. 



