444 THE CARNIVORES 



belonging to Dr. J. Anderson. Both specimens were very playful, although the 

 former would occasionally be somewhat too free with its claws. It displayed mar- 

 velous agility in capturing the half-wild pigeons which abound in I,eh. 



In Ladakh, where the lynx is a rare animal, but seldom seen by Europeans, its 

 chief food appears to consist of the blue hares which occur in swarms in many of the 

 higher valleys. General Kinloch writes that in the summer of 1866, when shooting 

 at a high elevation near Hanle, in Spiti, " I suddenly came upon a female lynx with 

 two cubs. I shot the mother, and as the cubs concealed themselves among some 

 rocks, I barricaded them in, and went on with my hunting. On arriving in camp, 

 I sent back men to try and catch the cubs ; in this they succeeded, and brought 

 them back to me. They were about the size of half-grown cats, and more spiteful, 

 vicious little devils cannot be imagined ; they were, however, very handsome, with 

 immense heads and paws. For two or three days they refused all food, but at the 

 end of that time they fed quite ravenously from the hand. They soon became very 

 tame and playful, although always ready to set their backs up if at all teased, or if 

 a dog came near them." 



Coming to the American species or varieties of lynxes, the first and 

 largest is the Canada lynx {F. canadensis}. Professor Mivart de- 

 scribes this as very like the European form, the specimens that came under his 

 notice being smaller, and not exceeding thirty inches in length from the muzzle to the 

 root of the tail, with a tail five inches long ; but Mr. C. J. Nattrass says that the 

 Canada lynx may exceed three feet in length. The same writer observes that in 

 some climates the color of this lynx is almost white, although usually of a dark 

 gray tinged with chestnut, with the limbs darker than the body. The back and the 

 upper part of the legs are mottled with darker blotches, and the tips of the hairs 

 are white. 



The Canada lynx extends from Canada at least as far south as the Adirondack 

 mountains, near New York ; and is the loup cervier of the French Canadians. In 

 the Adirondacks, where it is nowhere common, it preys, according to Dr. Hart 

 Merriam, " upon the northern hare, and such other small Mammals as it can catch, 

 and upon the ruffed grouse and spruce partridge. It has also been known to devour 

 pigs, lambs, and young fawns ; but the accounts of it attacking full-grown deer are 

 not to be credited. Its haunts are in the deep forests and bush districts, remote 

 from the paths of man ; and consequently it rarely intrudes upon the barnyard. 

 Its ordinary gait when in a hurry is a long gallop, like that of the hare, and it is 

 said to swim well. The female commonly has two young at a birth, her lair being 

 usually located in a cavern or hollow tree. ' ' 



Mr. Nattrass states that this lynx when leaping over the ground, as it does in a 

 series of successive bounds, with back arched, the tail so short as to be almost indis- 

 cernible, presents altogether a quaint, weird appearance, which has been described 

 by many hunters and backwoodsmen as laughable and peculiar in the extreme. 

 The same writer also relates an instance where a lynx, when hard pressed by dogs, 

 took to the water and swam right across Lake Leman, of which the width is almost 

 a mile. He likewise states that the lynx will feast upon the forsaken prey of the 

 puma, which may account for the legends of its killing the larger kinds of deer ; 



