Canada Lynx 697 



my meal of cat, in spite of the Hibernian dictum that a Lynx 

 is nothing but an animated Rabbit, anyway. 



That the Lynx population fluctuates greatly is well migra- 

 known to all trappers and fur-traders — but does the species 

 migrate? J. K. McDonald, after thirty-five years of service 

 in the fur country as a Hudson Bay trader, writes me: 



"It is accepted as a matter beyond cavil by all Hudson 

 Bay hunters, that the Hare, Lynx, and Marten do migrate, 

 and the fluctuation in their numbers is not considered to be 

 caused by epidemics — save in the case of the Hare. Were it 

 so with the Lynx, for instance, their bodies would surely be 

 found, yet I have not heard of such a thing. It is always the 

 case that when Lynx and Marten are plentiful, so are the 

 Hares, and I am inclined to think that the former is the cause, 

 at least to a large extent; as they are known to destroy the 

 smaller mammals that prey on the Hares. Thus an influx 

 in Lynxes causes such a decrease in other fur-bearing animals 

 that the fur-traders look upon it as a disaster. 



"These periodical waves of increase or decrease cover 

 large tracts of country, and it might be found that where in one 

 tract they were moving east, in another they were going west." 



George Linklater and Miles Spencer, northern hunters 

 of life-long experience, reiterate the theory of migration. 



The former tells me that at Green Lake, Ont., Lynxes were 

 so plentiful during the winters from 1888 to 1890 that he took 

 in 300 pelts each season at the Hudson Bay post. They 

 then nearly all disappeared, and for three winters he took in 

 only 30 to 35 pelts a season. At the same time they appeared 

 in great numbers at Lake Temagaming, 200 miles away, 

 where they had been very scarce, and for some years several 

 hundred pelts were brought in each winter, instead of 20 or 

 30. At the time of this change he saw many Lynx tracks 

 pointing eastward from Green Lake towards Temagaming, 

 and one day followed a band of half a dozen for many miles. 

 They were not hunting, but travelling, and so close together 

 that he could not be sure if there were 5 or 6 of them. There 



