THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS 



409 



During captivity their restless intelligence is 

 shown by the curiosity with which they care- 

 fully examine every strange object. They are 

 particularly attracted by anything bright or 

 shining, and a piece of tin fastened to the pan 

 of a trap serves as a successful lure in trap- 

 ping them. 



They patrol the border of streams and lakes 

 so persistently that where they are common 

 they sometimes make well-trodden little trails, 

 and many opened mussel shells or other signs 

 of their feasts may be found on the tops of 

 fallen logs or about stones projecting above 

 the water. In the northern part of their range 

 they hibernate during the coldest parts of the 

 winter, but in the South are active throughout 

 the year. 



Raccoons began to figure in our frontier lit- 

 erature at an early date. "Coon-skin" caps, 

 with the ringed tails hanging like plumes, made 

 the favorite headgear of many pioneer hunters, 

 and "coon skins" were a recognized article of 

 barter at country stores. Now that the in- 

 creasing occupation of the country is crowding 

 out more and more of our wild life, it is a 

 pleasure to note the persistence with which 

 these characteristic and interesting animals 

 continue to hold their own in so much of their 

 original range. 



CANADA LYNX (Lynx canadensis) 



The lynxes are long-legged, short-bodied 

 cats, with tufted ears and a short "bobbed" 

 tail. They are distributed from the northern 

 limit of trees south into the Temperate Zone 

 throughout most of the northern part of both 

 Old and New Worlds. In North America 

 there are two tj-pes — the smaller animal, south- 

 ern in distribution, and the larger, or Canada 

 lynx, limited to the north, where its range ex- 

 tends from the northern limit of trees south to 

 the northern border of the United States. It 

 once occupied all the mountains of New Eng- 

 land and south in the Alleghenies to Pennsyl- 

 vania. In the West it is still a habitant of the 

 Rocky Mountains as far south as Colorado, 

 and of the Sierra Nevada nearly to Mount 

 Whitney. 



The Canada lynx is notable for the beauty 

 of its head, one of the most striking among all 

 our carnivores. This species is not only much 

 larger than its southern neighbor, the bay 

 lynx, but may also be distinguished from it by 

 its long ear tips, thick legs, broad spreading 

 feet, and the complete jet-black end of the tail. 

 It is about 3 feet long and weighs from 15 to 

 over 30 pounds. As befits an animal of the 

 great northern forests, it has a long thick coat 

 of fur, which gives it a remarkably fluffy ap- 

 pearance. Its feet in winter are heavily furred 

 above and below and are so broad that they 

 serve admirably for support in deep snow, 

 through which it would otherwise have to 

 wade laboriously. 



This animal does not attack people, though 

 popular belief often credits it with such action. 

 It feeds mainly on such small prey as varying 

 hares, mice, squirrels, foxes, and the grouse 



and other birds living in its domain; but on 

 occasion it even kills animals as large as moun- 

 tain sheep. One such feat was actually wit- 

 nessed above timberline in winter on a spur 

 of Mount McKinley. The lynx sprang from a 

 ledge as the sheep passed below, and, holding 

 on the sheep's neck and shoulders, it reached 

 forward and by repeatedly biting put out its 

 victim's eyes, thus reducing it to helplessness. 



The chief food of the Canada lynx is the 

 varying hare, which throughout the North 

 periodically increases to the greatest abun- 

 dance and holds its numbers for several years. 

 During these periods the fur sales in the Lon- 

 don market show that the number of lynx 

 skins received increases proportionately with 

 those of the hare. When an epizootic disease 

 appears, as it does regularly, and almost ex- 

 terminates the hares, there is an immediate 

 and corresponding drop in the number of lynx 

 skins sent to market. This evidences one of 

 Nature's great tragedies, not only among the 

 overabundant hares, but among the lynxes, for 

 with the failure of their food supply over a 

 vast area tens of thousands of them perish of 

 starvation. 



The Canada lynx has from two to five kit- 

 tens, which are marked with dusky spots and 

 short bands, indicating an ancestral relation- 

 ship to animals similar to the ocelot, or tiger- 

 cat, of the American tropics. The young usu- 

 ally keep with the miOther for nearly a year. 

 Such families no doubt form the hunting par- 

 ties whose rabbit drives on the Yukon Islands 

 were described to me by the fur traders and 

 Indians of the Yukon Valley. 



During sledge trips along the lower Yukon 

 I often saw the distinctive broad, rounded 

 tracks of lynxes, showing where they had wan- 

 dered through the forests or crossed the wide, 

 snow-covered river channel. Here and there, 

 as the snow became very deep and soft, the 

 tracks showed where a series of leaps had 

 been made. Lynx trails commonly led from 

 thicket to thicket where hares, grouse, or other 

 game might occur. Canada lynxes appear to be 

 rather stupid animals, for they are readily 

 caught in traps, or even in snares, and, like 

 most cats, make little effort to escape. 



BOBCAT, OR BAY LYNX (Lynx ruffus 



and its subspecies) 



The bay lynx, bobcat, or wildcat, as Lynx 

 ruffus and its close relatives are variously 

 called in different parts of the country, is one 

 of the most widely distributed and best known 

 of our wild animals. It is about two-thirds 

 the size of the Canada lynx and characterized 

 by much slenderer proportions, especially in its 

 legs and feet. The ears are less conspicuously 

 tufted and the tip of the tail is black only on 

 its upper half. Bobcats range from Nova 

 Scotia and southern British Columbia over 

 practically all of the wooded and brushy parts 

 of the United States except along the northern 

 bordeY, and extend south to the southern end 

 of the high table-land of Mexico. 



From the earliest settlement of America the 



