198 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
though always ready to set their backs up if at all teased, or if a dog 
came near them.” 
The next species differs from the typical lynx in wanting the ruff of 
hair round the face, and also in having the pads of the feet bald. The 
skull is that of a lynx, but the processes of the frontals and intermaxillz 
are not quite so much produced, and they do not entirely separate the 
nasal from the maxille. There is a good illustration to be found in 
De Blainville’s ‘ Ostéographie.’ 
No. 218. FELIS CARACAL. 
The Red Lynx (Jerdon’s No. 116). 
NaTIvE NAME.—Szagosh, Persian, i.e., black ear. 
HapitTat.—Scattered throughout ‘India generally, Assam (Burmah 
and Ceylon ?), but it has also a much wider range, being found through- 
out Africa, Syria, and Arabia, and also in Persia. 
DescripTion.—Colour sandy fulvous, varying somewhat in indi- 
viduals ; paler beneath, in some almost white; tail the same colour as 
the body, with a black tip; the lower parts with some obscure spots, 
more or less distinct on the belly, flanks and insides of limbs; ears 
black externally, with a long dark ear tuft, white inside; a small 
blackish spot on the upper lip, and another above the eye, also a line 
down each side of the nose. In some individuals faint bars and caudal 
rings are discernible, and the chest is obscurely banded. 
SizE.—Head and body, 26 to 30 inches; tail, 9 or 10; height, 16 to 
18 inches. 
This handsome lynx is found, though not very common, in most 
parts of the Indian Peninsula, although Jerdon states that it is unknown 
in the Himalayas, Bengal, and the eastern countries. In those parts 
where it abounds it is very destructive to small game, such as gazelles, 
the smaller deer and hares. It also catches_such birds as pea-fowl, 
florican, cranes, &c., frequently springing at them from the ground as 
they fly over. They are easily tamed. I had a young one at Seonee, 
and the natives of some parts are said to train them for sporting 
purposes in the manner in which the hunting leopard is trained. 
Blyth says a brace of siagosh are often pitted against each other by 
the natives who keep them, a heavy wager pending as to which of the 
two will disable the greater number out of a flock of tame pigeons 
feeding, before the mass of them can rise out of reach, and ten or a 
dozen birds are commonly struck down right and left. 
“‘ Tt is a most sanguinary creature, yet the keepers manage them with 
facility, and slip the hood over their eyes with extreme dexterity, while 
they are engaged with their prey. In general they become quite tame 
to persons they know, and often sufficiently so to bear handling by a 
