440 



WILD GAT. 

 Lynx rufus. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Fur moderately full and soft. Head moderate size and 

 rounded; body rather slender; legs long and quite stout; soles 

 of feet naked. Ears large, erect and nearly triangular in 

 shape, and tipped (in winter specimens) with coarse black 

 hairs fully half an inch long; inner surface of the ears fur- 

 nished with a loose coat of long, pale, yellowish-white hairs, 

 and the outer surface is covered with short fur, which Is black, 

 except a conspicuous patch of dull white in the centre. 



Forehead grayish-brown, irregularly streaked with dark 

 brown; whitish streaks above and below the eyes; whisk- 

 ers for the most part are white; chin and upper part 

 of throat white, lower part of throat and neck very sim- 

 ilar to sides, but paler. The upper parts and sides of the body 

 and legs (outer portions of the latter) are pale rufous or brown- 

 ish-red overlaid with grayish, which latter color is produced by 

 the whitish ends of the hairs; the rufous coloration is most 

 noticeable on sides of the body, sides of the head below and 

 back of the ears, and about the occipital (base of head) re- 

 gion. The sides are indistinctly spotted with dark brown, and 

 down the middle of the back a more or less distinct line of 

 blackish-brown extends from near the shoulders to the base 

 of the tail. Under surface of body and legs white and pale- 

 yellowish spotted with black; Inside of front and hind legs 

 banded and spotted with black. The irides (eyes) of the adults 

 are greenish-yellow in color, but in the young they are brown. 

 Individuals of this species vary greatly in coloration. In fact 

 it is an exceedingly difficult matter to find two specimens 

 exactly alike. Ten specimens, now before me, captured In 

 Pennsylvania during tlie winter season, show a marked diver- 

 sity in color, as well as in size; and two or three individuals, 

 taken in the late spring or early autumn, which I have ex- 

 amined, are decidedly more brownish-red in color, particularly 

 on the sides, than those killed in the winter. The male is con- 

 siderably larger than the female. In the month of January. 

 1890, I secured five females in Cameron and Potter counties, 

 Pennsylvania, which weighed respectively ten and one-half, 

 twelve, twelve and three-fourths, nine and one-fourth, and 

 thirteen pounds, or an average of about eleven and one-half 

 pounds each. Three adult males which T captured in Pennsyl- 

 vania during the months of January, February and April, 

 weighed respectively fifteen and one-fourth, seventeen, and 

 eighteen and three-fourths pounds, or an average of seven- 

 teen pounds each. In the winter of 1892 Senator Harry A. 

 Hall, of St. Mary's presented me with a very fine male which 

 had been killed near his home in Elk county. This animal, 

 which is the largest I ever saw weighed, tipped the scales at 



