725 



in the .yards, lawns and orchards thej fieqnent; and, 

 as the young of douiesticated fo-wls arc carefully 

 guarded by their owners, these cats thirst for feath 

 ered game, and, like hermits, hie away and live in 

 retirement in woods and thickets. 



Members of the feline tribe which thus retire to live 

 become exceedingly wild and wary; and they are fre- 

 (luently met with in many sections of the State. Th(\v 

 are almost, if not equally, as bad about destroying 

 game, such as Pheasants, Turkeys, Quail and Rabbits, 

 as are the Foxes and true Wildcat or Bay Lynx. 



The name of "Wildcat" is applied to these feral rep- 

 I'esentatives of the domestic cat tribe by many hunters 

 and woodsmen, and possibly when heads and ears of 

 such animals have been presented for bounties in 

 siome of the counties, it was done with no intention of 

 deception nor with a knowledge that the common 

 house cat was being substituted for the true Wildcat 

 or Uay Lynx. 



HISTORY OF HEADS SHOWN ON PLATES. 



The ears of several of the mammal heads illustrated 

 on the plates at the end of this chapter are wanting; 

 this is due to the fact that they were cut off and 

 burned by the? officials who accepted them and paid 

 bo-unties for them. Tliese heads are all life size. 



OPOSSUM, RABBIT. WILD AND TAME CATS. 



The opossum head, that of a young one about two- 

 thii-ds grown, was sent to the office of the State Board 

 of Agriculture from one of the counties in Central 

 Pennsylvania, with the statement that it was either 

 a young Wildcat or young Catamount, and as there 

 w'as a dispute abo-ut it among some hunters where it 



