146 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



but we strongly object to steel traps and poison. 

 It happens, however, that the great American 

 sportsman has so thoroughly done his work in 

 grizzly-bear slaughter that to-day it is almost an 

 impossibility for a tenderfoot sportsman to find an 

 unkilled grizzly in any hunting-ground within the 

 borders of the United States. When inquirers ask, 

 "Where can I go and kill a grizzly in this country?" 

 the reply is, "Nowhere!" 



The Lynxes, wherever found, are a pest, though 

 not in the class of great pests. Their depredations 

 correspond to their size, and are confined chiefly 

 to game-birds and small game- quadrupeds. The 

 rabbit family is the mainstay of the lynx, and when 

 rabbits fail, the lynxes are quickly reduced to a 

 state bordering upon starvation. Although it is 

 known that a lynx can and occasionally does kill a 

 mountain sheep, such occurrences are, we believe, 

 extremely rare. An undue abundance of lynxes 

 soon could become an intolerable nuisance, but 

 owing to the rarity of lynxes as they are found at 

 this time, they are almost a negligible factor. 



In farming communities, the Mink, Weasel, 

 Skunk, Raccoon, and even the Opossum, all become 

 so destructive to poultry as to constitute pests 

 that require to be suppressed. I have in my pos- 

 session a photograph showing the remains of 

 twenty English pheasants that were killed by one 

 weasel in one night. Every individual of the five 

 species named mink, skunk, raccoon, opossum and 



