THE CARACAL LYNX 33 



variety of the bay lynx. Naturalists as yet are by 

 no means agreed as to the number of lynx species 

 existing, so that much work yet remains to be done 

 in this direction. Unlike the caracal, the true lynxes 

 are unknown in Africa and India. 



The caracal (in Africa at any rate) inhabits 

 mountainous yet fairly open country. 1 From its shy 

 habits it is but seldom seen, even in the districts 

 where it occurs ; it preys on lesser antelopes and 

 hares, and is said to be able to spring up and strike 

 birds flying directly overhead. In 1903 the writer 

 passed through a good deal of the caracal country ; 

 it was exceedingly interesting to observe Africa's 

 rugged mountains, sparsely clad with rough vegeta- 

 tion, stretching for league after league towards the 

 Sahara, and even invading the burning desert itself. 

 The heated rocks and sand, the deep silence every- 

 where, seemed to suggest a world destroyed by fire ; 

 yawning ravines, doubly impressive in the deathly 

 stillness, and stony beds from which all moisture had 

 departed, added a savage picturesqueness to the scene. 

 The scrubby bushes which nourished the gazelles 

 seemed hardly capable of supporting a mouse ; many 

 birds of prey soared aloft as if temporarily "out of 

 work." Specht's figure of a pair of caracal in the 

 " Royal Natural History " gives a fair idea of the 



1. It is interesting to compare the habits of the caracal with those of 

 the serval cat of the same districts. The self-coloured caracal inhabits 

 open country ; the spotted serval skulks among long grass and reeds 

 near rivers. 



