Canada Lynx 683 



March. My Ottawa guide, Ned Crete, of Deux Rivieres, 

 tells me that, in 1904, he saw 7 Lynxes together on March 15 

 or 20. It was the regular running season, and the year before 

 a similar group was seen at the same place. 



There were 2 small and 5 big ones. They were cater- 

 wauling like cats; it was this noise that called his attention to 

 them. Two were fighting exactly like tom-cats; the one down 

 on his back had the better of it, being able to scratch with 

 four feet instead of only two. 



The hunters generally believe that the Lynx is monog- 

 amous, and Miles Spencer gives" it as the opinion of the 

 Indians that the Lynx assists the female in rearing the young. 

 Linklater takes the same view and maintains that though the 

 male does not actually accompany the young, when they fol- 

 low the mother, he is always found at no great distance, both 

 in summer and in winter. This same trapper believes that 

 Lynxes travel in families the year round, except in the spring. 



The period of gestation, according to MacFarlane,' is young 

 about 3 months. This would bring the young into the world 

 about the middle of June in Hudson Bay Territories, but 

 in Pennsylvania, Rhoads says, they arrive in May.' The 

 mother prepares a comfortable nest for them in some hole 

 or hollow log. Whether the father assists in this, I cannot 

 learn. The young are, according to all accounts, from i to 

 3 or 4 in number, but Linklater tells me that he has found up 

 to 6 in the female. This discrepancy I have come across many 

 times, the average number of young in the brood being less 

 than the number of embryos in the female. It may mean 

 that some are still-born, a parallel case being the addled eggs in 

 nests; or, if too many for their food supply, the weak ones die. 



When born they are much like the kittens of the house- 

 cat. In 1886 I made the herewith drawing of one (Plate XLIX) 

 to illustrate a paper by Dr. C. Hart Merriam. The specimen 



»Mam. H. Bay, Low's Rep. Geol. Surv. Can., 1888, App. Ill, p. 76 J. 

 ' Mam. N. W. Terr., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXVIII, 1905, p. 692. 

 *Mam. Penn., 1903, p. 140. 



