ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 267 



present the law gives it absolute protection (Reichsstelle fiir Natur- 

 schutz, in Hit., October, 1936) . 



In Denmark the species is known only from Stone Age and Bronze 

 Age remains (Winge, 1908, p. 117) . 



In Switzerland it abounded during the seventeenth century, and 

 numerous captures were made up to the early part of the nineteenth 

 century. Thereafter it suffered a pronounced decrease. In the 

 1860's it was still found, but only occasionally, in Grisons, Ticino, 

 and Valais (one record in 1867). (Fatio, 1869, p. 280.) One was 

 killed in the Engadine in 1872. The species is now extinct in Switzer- 

 land. (Federal Forest, Game, and Fish Inspection, Berne, in litt., 

 March, 1937.) 



The species may be considered extinct in Italy, the last specimens 

 having been killed in Piedmont in the second half of the last century 

 (Laboratorio di Zoologia Applicata a Caccia, in litt., September, 

 1936). De Beaux (1932, p. 9) speaks of the forest of Langhe in the 

 Maritime Alps, in the province of Cuneo, as its last refuge. 



In Austria the Lynx is entirely exterminated. In Carinthia one 

 was killed in 1848, and another was seen in 1878. In Lower Austria 

 it was fairly distributed up to the middle of the last century. In the 

 Tyrol it was very common in the sixteenth century, but during 

 the next century it decreased decidedly, and at the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century it was said to be not very rare ; the last one was 

 killed at Graun in 1873. In Vorarlberg the last one was killed in 

 1918. (G. Schlesinger, in litt., March, 1937.) 



Before World War I the Lynx was found everywhere in the Car- 

 pathian forests of Hungary (now Czechoslovakia) (J. Schenk, in 

 litt., November, 1936) . In the higher elevations of the Tatra Range 

 (Czechoslovakia and Poland) there are a few Lynxes (Maurice, 

 1927, p. 21). (See also under Poland.) 



In the present Hungary the species is not found (J. Schenk, in litt., 

 November, 1936) . 



During the past century the Lynx was exterminated throughout 

 Yugoslavia except in the high mountain region of Shar Planina, in 

 southern Serbia, where four or five specimens are killed every year 

 (M. Hirtz, in litt., December, 1936). 



In Greece it occurs in Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace. 

 No decrease has been observed. (Game Department, Greek Ministry 

 of Agriculture, in litt., October, 1936.) 



In Bulgaria "the lynx is about gone, though I saw two fine skins 

 last week at a fur shop in Varna, on the Black Sea, and one in the 

 peasant market in Sofia last year." A reserve for the Lynx in the 

 Pirene Mountains is advocated. (H. W. Shoemaker, in litt., June 

 30, 1932.) According to the Bulgarian Game Association "Sokol" 

 (in litt., February, 1937) , the last specimen was killed in 1907. The 



