1936] 



MAMMALS OF OREGON 



271 



tory animals. During the year 1929, the Biological Survey and 

 State hunters turned in skins of 410 bobcats from the State. This 

 was in addition to those taken by private parties. 



LYNX CANADENSIS CANADENSIS KEEK 

 CANADA LYNX 



Lynx canadensis Kerr, Animal Kingdom, 1 : 157, 1792. 



Type locality. Eastern Canada. 



General characters. Size about as the bobcat, but with much larger feet, 

 longer legs, shorter tails, longer ear tassels, longer side whiskers, and longer 

 fur, giving them in winter the appearance of a much larger animal. Skull wider 

 interorbitally than that of the bobcat, with heavier dentition, smaller audital 

 bullae, and U-shaped instead of W-shaped interpterygoid fossa. 



Winter pelage, upper parts light frosted gray, the buffy brown underfur 

 being almost concealed by the white tips of the long, soft outer hairs ; back of 

 inner edges of ears, ear tassels, tufts in side whiskers, and whole tip of tail 

 black; lower parts, legs, and feet light buffy gray, with generally little trace 

 of spotting. Summer pelage, upper parts dark brownish gray with dusky line 

 along back ; ear tips and tassels, tufts in side whiskers and tip of tail black ; 

 legs and tail yellowish gray ; lower parts buffy gray to soiled whitish, faintly 

 spotted along sides with dusky. Young more yellowish and more spotted and 

 striped than adults. 



Measurements. Of large male: Total length, 954 mm; tail, 100; foot, 203; 

 ear, (dry), 60; tassel in winter, 60; whiskers in winter, 100. Skull of adult 

 male : Basal length, 110 ; zygomatic breadth, 94. Largest weight 28 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. The Canada lynx is scarce in Oregon, 

 but specimens have been taken at Fort Klamath, Bend, North Fork 

 John Day River, near Pendleton, at Granite in Grant County and on 

 Kiger Creek in the Steens 

 Mountains (fig. 61). 

 There are also a couple 

 of records for northern 

 Nevada, which seems to 

 be the southern limit of 

 this boreal species in the 

 Great Basin country. 

 There are several verbal 

 reports of their occur- 

 rence west of the Cas- 

 cades in Oregon, but these 

 are unsupported by speci- 

 mens. The general range 

 of the species is across 

 boreal North America 

 and south in the moun- 

 tains to Pennsylvania and Colorado. Subspecies have been described 

 from Labrador and Alaska, but the characters remain surprisingly 

 constant over an enormous area, perhaps due to the wandering 

 habits of the animals. Primarily they belong to Canadian and 

 Hudsonian Zones, but in times of scarcity of food, they wander long 

 distances into lower zones. The Cascades and Blue Mountains are 

 probably their real home, and other records are of wanderers from 

 these boreal areas. 



General habits. Peculiarly adapted to life in the forest and to 

 cold weather and deep snows, these big-footed cats remain in the 



FIGURE 61. Range of the Canada lynx, Lynx cana- 

 densis canadensis, in Oregon. 



