THE MOUNTAIN LION, OCELOTS, LYNXES AND THEIR KIN 



635 



Hence it has come to pass that no bob cat or lynx rufus 

 pelts are offered in the markets. 



"From a varied, though not at all accurate, experience, 

 extending over more years than I care to confess, I 

 believe the loupcervier the fellow whose skin brings 

 money is gradually disappearing before the march of 

 civilization. The skin will always bring some price, 

 which is an inducement. As the animal is a confirmed 

 habitue of the woods, it finds its area growing more re- 

 stricted every year, and it must soon follow the caribou 

 to practical extinction. Meantime, the sneaking, carrion- 

 devouring bob cat is waxing fat and prospering in the 

 neighborhood of man. Within the past ten years I have 

 seen young bob kittens playing near a hay barn in a 

 back field on two occasions succeeding years, too and 

 on asking the men at work on the farm about the matter, 

 I was told that the mother cat had her home under the 

 bam. As the 

 barn Is not 

 more than 20 

 rods away 

 from a rail- 

 road where 

 cars pass every 

 hour in the 

 day, and as it 

 is a hundred 

 rods from a 

 noisy and ac- 

 tive steam saw- 

 mill, I infer 

 that bob cats 

 are not shy. 

 Last summer, 

 when a neigh- 

 bor of mine 

 went out in the 

 morning to 

 open his chick- 

 en pens, he saw 

 a bob cat sneak 

 from behind a 

 pen and stand 



at attention. A small terrier dog coming up at the time, 

 the cat climbed a sapling birch and clung to the body of 

 the tree until my neighbor walked a third of a mile to 

 my home and borrowed a gun. On returning to his 

 coops, the cat was still in the tree, and was killed with 

 a charge of BB shot. In two instances I have known 

 bob cats, when treed by dogs, to remain aloft until they 

 were rested, and then come down and fight their way to 

 freedom, killing two hounds in one of the conflicts. 



"While bob cats are brave fighters when cornered 

 and will disembowel a dog of double their weight with 

 apparent ease, they are cowardly when met by a man, 

 and will never show fight unless compelled to do so to 

 save their lives or liberties. They are very swift of 

 foot and capable of great endurance. Two years ago 



THE BOB CAT 



As a matter of fact the Bob Cat is the wild cat or Bay Lynx of the naturalists. There 

 are several species of it in this country and Col. Roosevelt left us some excellent ac- 

 counts of them. They have a characteristic short, stubby tail. 



this winter I found the head and fore-shoulders of a big 

 red fox hidden away in the snow at the edge of some 

 bushes. Wishing to know what had killed the fox tor 

 the flesh had not had time to freeze I turned the hounds 

 loose and soon came up with a bob cat in a tree. Taking 

 the back track from the place where I had found the 

 dead fox, for there was a light snow on top of a light 

 crust, I followed to a field a half mile away, and came" 

 upon a scene of a furious combat. The snow was spat- 

 tered with tracks over an area of four or five acres, and 

 near one side of the multitude of tracks was a great 

 smooch in the snow, showing where the tragedy had 

 taken place. For some rods around the dent in the 

 snow were spatters and daubs of blood and tufts of 

 hair. Of course, I cannot certify that the blood came 

 from a fox, but I believe it did. As for the hair, that 

 grew on a red fox beyond doubt. Until this discovery 



I had not 

 placed raw fox 

 among the ar- 

 ticles on the 

 bill of fare of 

 bob cats. My 

 impression is 

 that the aver- 

 age bob cat is 

 a n uncleanly 

 animal, and 

 will eat most 

 anything that 

 comes to hand. 

 I have known 

 them to dig 

 into heaps of 

 d r e s s i n.g to 

 make a break- 

 fast on ancient 

 slaughter 

 house offal, 

 when in a pas- 

 ture fifty rods 

 away were a 

 score of nice 

 spring lambs that could be had for the catching." 



This article was written at Brewer, Maine; Mr. Ford 

 appears to be a very good observer of animals, and in- 

 telligently describes what he has seen. 



There are some very excellent stories and pictures, 

 the latter being reproductions of photographs from life 

 in Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's article in Scribner's 

 Magazine (October and November, 1901). : . 



There is much about the wild or bob cat to remind us 

 of the common domesticated animal, especially in some 

 of its habits. Their way of hunting their prey is typic- 

 ally feline, and if one has the opportunity of seeing them 

 at such times, it will be noted that their whole action is 

 identical. A wild cat is a fine mouser, and there is no 

 question that they kill and eat a great many of the 



