7S9 



FELIIXE. 



FELID.E. 



790 



of the lion, and having been found preying upon the carcasses which 

 the former has left. According to M. Temminck, the Caracals hunt 

 in packs like the wild dogs, and so run down their prey. Pennant, 

 quoting The've'not, notices their feeding on the remains of the prey 

 which the lion leaves, and seems to confirm the account given by 

 M. Temminck, for he states that they are often brought up tame, and 

 used in the chase of lesser quadrupeds and the larger sorts of birds, 

 such as cranes, pelicans, peacocks, &c. When they seize their prey, 

 they hold it fast with their mouth and lie motionless on it. Pennant^ 

 quoting Hyde, also states that the Arabian writers, who call it Anak 

 el Ard, say that it hunts like the panther, jumps up at cranes as they 

 fly, and covers its steps when hunting. In captivity the Caracal is 

 generally very ill-natured and irritable, and does not seem to hold 

 out much promise for domestication ; but we are aware that it is not 

 safe to come to conclusions of this sort upon the evidence of an 

 unhappy irritable animal shut up in a cage, when nature intended 

 it for unlimited roamings. A young Caracal in the Garden of the 

 Zoological Society at the Regent's Park was very familiar and anxious 

 to be noticed, pleased with being caressed, and playful as a kitten. 

 Dr. Charleton however gives evidence of the fierceness and strength 

 i'f tliis species, for he relates that he saw one fall on a hound, which 

 it killed and tore to pieces in a moment, though the dog defended 

 itself to the utmost. 



Caracal). 



This animal derives its name of Caracal from the Turkish words 

 ' kara,' black, and ' kulach,' ear : and the Persian name ' Siyah-Gush' 

 i>r 'Sin-gtuch' ('sia,' black, and 'gusch,' ear) is derived from the 

 same characteristic marking*. 



Authors seem to concur in holding that this is the hvy(, Lynx, of 

 the ancients, and though we lean strongly to this opinion, the reader 

 shmil.l l>car in mind that the latter evidently used the term to denote 

 various animals, at) Gesner well remarked. The 'lyuces Bacchi 

 variso' of Virgil ('Georg.' iii. 264) and the skin 'maculosic lyncis' 

 alluded to by the same author (' /Eneid,' i. 323), can hardly be held 

 to apply to the Caracal, though Ovid's line (' Met.' xv. 413) 

 " Victa r.icemifero lyncas dedit India Baccho " 



may. The truth seems to be that the ancients themselves had no 

 very precise ideas of the animal which was accorded to Bacchus as 

 one of hut attributes. The terms Lynx, Panther, and Tiger seem to 

 b all employed to designate this animal or these animals; and if we 

 refer to gems or coins or other ancient monuments, the Lynces, to 

 play somewhat unpardonably perhaps on Virgil's expression, will be 

 found to be sufficiently ' varia;.' The animals represented on the 

 ancient sculptures have generally the round ear of the Lion, Tiger, 

 and Panther or Leopard ; and their general contour is that of the 

 Lion, Lioness, or Panther, and Leopard. See, for instance, No. 30, 

 N'". :;", in Room i. ; Fragments of Terracottas in Room x. ; No. 8 

 (Bacchus and Ampelus), Room iv. ; No. 40 (Libera, or Female 

 Bacchus), Room vi. ; No. 12, Room iii. ; and No. 7, Room ii., of the 

 Townley Gallery in the British Museum, as represented in the 

 'Library of Entertaining Knowledge' : British Museum; Townley 

 Gallery,' vols. i. and ii. The Lion's nkin, with which, as well 

 M that of the Panther and Roe, he was represented, appears on 

 tho colsfwal statue of Bacchus in the Elgin collection in the British 



Museum. (' Library of Entertaining Knowledge ' : British Museum 

 Elgin and Phigaleien Marbles, vol. ii.) In the edition of the 'Gemmaj 

 et Sculptura Antiqusc,' by Gronovius, we find in the 'Carro di Baccho,' 

 as mentioned above, a child in a chariot driving two round-eared 

 spotted great cats ; and in the next gem, figured ' Tigre di Bacho,' 

 also a carneliap, we have a round-eared spotless female great cat with 

 a tuft at the end of the tail, which no panther, leopard, or lynx 

 possesses. 



In the coin of Septimius Severus, noticed in Captain Smyth's 

 ' Catalogue,' between the figures of Hercules and Bacchus is a lynx 

 or panther, illustrating the verse of Propertius : 



" Lyncibus ad Ctt'lum vecta Ariadne tuis." 



Nor does there occur to us any ancient statue, gem, or coin whereon 

 the Lynx of Bacchus is represented with pointed ears tufted at the 

 summit, the characteristic mark of that subdivision of tho cats 

 denominated Lynxes by modern zoologists ; though we by no means 

 feel sufficient reliance upon our limited experience to consider this 

 negative evidence as conclusive. The animal in the Palestrins 

 Mosaic, with the word ' Lynx ' below it, is represented with a tail of 

 considerable length, and cannot be mistaken for one of the animals 

 now called Lynxes ; indeed, if we do not err, the Abbe" Barthdlemi 

 observes that this animal bears a strong resemblance to a horse. 



That the At'iyf of Aristotle, Lilian, and Oppiau was not one of the 

 doubtful animals above alluded to, but one of the Lynxes of modern 

 zoologists, there can be, in our opinion, no doubt. 



Lilian (xiv. 6) gives such a description of his lynxes, with the tips 

 of their ears tufted, their leaping on their prey, and their tenacity in 

 holding it, as cannot be mistaken; and he quotes two lines of 

 Euripides to show that the animal he is describing is the lynx of that 

 poet. Oppian (' Cyneget.,' iii. v. 84) also gives such an account of his 

 lynxes as can be referrible to no other animals than those on which 

 we are treating. He speaks of two kinds, notices their preying on 

 hares, and leaping upon stags and oryxes. 



Pennant conceived that the European Lynx was the Avy of ^Elian 

 and Oppian, and the Chans of Pliny ; with regard to the former, we 

 think, without due consideration. The Caracal comes much more 

 within Oppian's description than the European Lynx. Oppian 

 expressly notices the ruddy and yellow colours of his two kinds, but 

 mentions no spots. The localities of the Caracal, combined with the 

 other evidence, make it much more probable that it should be the 

 animal designated as a A</>| by Aristotle and .(Elian, and one, at least, 

 of the two kinds mentioned by Oppian, if his differences were not, as 

 they well might be, those of climate, sex, or age. Mr. Bennett 

 (' Tower Menagerie ') thinks that the Caracal is unquestionably 

 identical with the Lynx of the ancients, though the name has been 

 usurped in modern times for an animal of northern origin utterly 

 unknown to the Greeks, and known to the Romans by a totally 

 different appellation. 



P. caligala, Bruce, Temm., the Booted Lynx ; F. Libyans, 

 Olivier; F. Cham, Thumb, Geoff, (part); Lynx des Marais (part), 

 Cuv. (Fischer). 



Small, total length about three feet, of which the slender tail 

 measures rather more than one-third, or 13J inches; ears large, red 

 within, tipped with a pencil of brown short hairs ; sole and posterior 

 part of the foot (leg, in common parlance) deep black ; upper parts of 

 the body bluish-gray, in some specimens fulvous, clouded with gray 



Booted Lynx (t'elii calignla). 



and sprinkled with black hairs; lower parts, including the under 

 parts of the neck and breast, reddish ; thighs marked with indistinct 

 bands of rather bright brown ; two rather bright ruddy bands on 

 the cheeks ; tail at its base colour of the back, black at the tip, and 



