392 NORTHERN EUROPE 



its winter-dress, one species at least develops an additional claw to each toe, 

 apparently to assist in digging its winter retreat. Among the true rats and mice, 

 northern Europe has the house-mouse and both the black and the brown rat. The 

 black rat has nearly disappeared ; and the house-mouse of northern Europe is 

 lighter coloured than usual, having numerous white hairs in the fur. Of the other 

 central European mice only the harvest-mouse is found in the latitude of Finland; 

 the long-tailed field-mouse ranges into Sweden and the corresponding latitude in 

 Russia. The striped gopher or chipmunk (Tamias asiaticus), a member of the 

 squirrel family, of northern Europe and Siberia, is unrepresented in central Europe. 

 Among the beasts-of-prey, the lynx (Fclis lynx) inhabits the 

 northern districts of Sweden, Norway, and Russia, where the wild 

 cat is unknown. The lynx is distributed throughout the greater part of Asia 

 north of the Himalaya, and through Ladak to Tibet. Formerly it was common in 

 many parts of the Continent, and was probably found everywhere between the Alps 

 and its present habitat in Europe, but the felling of the forests and the decrease of 

 deer has driven it from most of its former haunts and it has almost everywhere 

 been nearly extirpated by man. In the Alps there are now but few lynxes, 

 and in Switzerland probably none at all. They seem to be still common in the 

 Carpathians, but in the lower mountains of France and Germany they have long 

 since been exterminated. The last live were shot in the Thuringian forest between 

 ] 773 and 1796, the last survivor in Silesia in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 and the last pair in the Hartz Mountains in 1817 and 1818, while the last French 

 lynx was killed in the Haute Loire in 1822, and the last specimen in the Swabian 

 Alps in 1846. Unlike the variety inhabiting Tibet, the European lynx is an 

 animal of the forest, climbing trees with facility. It has always been a denizen 

 of the plains as well as of the mountains, and is everywhere a voracious tyrant, 

 killing more than it eats. A lynx sometimes pounces on its prey from a tree, and 

 it lies in ambush for deer, and, if it can get nothing better, will capture marmots, 

 hares, squirrels, mice, birds, or goats and other domesticated animals. Amid 

 secluded rocks or in caves are brought forth annually from two to three cubs. By 

 many zoologists the lynx is ranked as the representative of a separate genus, 

 in which are included several other species; and it is certainly distinguished 

 from the more typical cats by several characteristic features. It has, for in- 

 stance, unusually long legs, black tufts of hair on the tips of the ears, a short 

 face, high forehead, and only two premolar teeth in the upper jaw. From the 

 caracal, which it resembles in these points, it differs by the shorter body and tail, 

 the long whiskers, and the soft and close fur. In these particulars it is like all the 

 true lynxes, but it is difficult to draw a line, since the caracal is the connecting 

 link between the former and the rest of the cat family. The colour of the 

 European lynx varies between a light yellowish grey and a greyish rufous, the 

 lower-parts being white. The summer coat seems to be always marked by a number 

 of small black spots, which sometimes, at least in the young, persist during 

 winter. This refers to European lynxes, their Asiatic relatives being at most 

 spotted only on the sides and legs in winter. The lynx has an average length of 

 32 inches, but varies in size in different parts of its habitat. Alpine lynxes are 

 smaller than those from the north and seldom exceed 4-1 lbs. in weight, whereas 



