THE COMMON LYNX. 71 



birds, so immediately did its spring follow my shot." Besides being so common in India, the Chaus is 

 found all over Africa, especially in the north. 



It is of a yellowish-grey colour, inclining to reddish in some parts, and white below. The muzzle 

 and the limbs have dark stripes, and the tail is more or less ringed with black, but the greater part of 

 the body is unspotted. It is interesting to notice that the annulation of the tail is most distinct in 

 the young. We have elsewhere remarked that the young of all the one-coloured Cats (Lion, Puma, &c.), 

 are more or less indistinctly spotted or striped. The ears are slightly tufted, so that this species, like 

 the Spotted Wild Cat, approaches the Lynxes. The length of the head and body together is twenty- 

 six inches ; of the tail, nine or ten ; the height at the shoulder fourteen or fifteen. A black variety is 

 to be met with in some parts of India. 



THE COMMON LYNX* 



In the Lynx we come again to an animal of historical interest, for this creature was well known to 

 the ancients. It is mentioned by Pliny as having first appeared in the Amphitheatre at Rome in the 

 time of Pompey, having been brought to the great city from Gaul, where, at that time, it was probably 

 very abundant. No doubt it would cause grand sport in the arena, for it is an extremely savage beast, 

 and capable of holding its own against animals many times its own size. The Lynx was also one of 

 the animals sacred to Bacchus, and is sometimes represented, instead of the Leopard, as drawing the 

 car of this deity. 



But the Lynx of the ancients has, as Buffon remarks, quite the character of a fabulous animal. 

 It was supposed " that its sight was so piercing as to penetrate opaque bodies, that its water had the 

 marvellous property of becoming a solid body, a precious stone, called lapis lyncurius ! " This last 

 legend, as Brehm suggests, probably arose from the fact that the amber brought from Liguria was called 

 lapis ligurius, and that the Greek merchants, knowing nothing about such a place as Liguria, corrupted 

 ligurius into lyncurius, and, of course, connected it with Lyncus. A survival of the superstition about 

 the Lynx being able to see through walls still exists in our common expression, " Lynx-eyed." 



The Common Lynx is found chiefly in Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Northern Asia, and in the 

 mountainous districts of Central Europe. In other parts of the Continent it is nearly or quite extinct. 



The animal attains a much greater size than any of the ordinary Wild Cats, being as much as 

 forty or fifty inches long, from the tip of its snout to the root of its tail. It is also readily dis- 

 tinguished from the Cats proper by the shortness of its tail, which does not exceed six to nine inches, 

 or about one-fifth the length of the body, and by the length of its legs, which gives it a decidedly 

 un- Cat-like look, and brings its height at the shoulder up to twenty-five inches. Another distinguish- 

 ing feature is to be found in the long pointed ears, each with a tuft of long stiff hair on its tip ; and 

 still another is the length of the fur on the cheeks, whereby a pair of capital whiskers of almost 

 Dundreary length is produced. These, it must be understood, are quite distinct from the true 

 " whiskers," or tactile vibrissse, with which the upper lip of the Lynx, like that of all Felidce, is 

 provided. The tufted ears and bearded cheeks, together with the fierce brightness of the eye, give 

 the Lynx an altogether peculiar and somewhat weird expression. 



When we have added that the pads of the feet are overgrown with hair, we have mentioned all 

 the obvious differences between a Lynx and a true Cat. In everything else, its teeth, its bones, its 

 sheathed claws, its manner of killing its prey, its habit of swearing and spitting when angry, it is a 

 Cat all over. Still, the differences between it and the ordinary Cats are considerable, and some 

 naturalists prefer to look upon the Lynxes as a distinct genus (Lyncus) ; but, on the whole, especially 

 when we consider how the chasm is bridged over by the Jungle Cat, it is more convenient to keep the 

 two together, and consider the Lynxes as simply a section of the great genus Felis. 



The skin of the Common Lynx is of a reddish-grey colour, more or less spotted with red or 

 d irk grey ; but the variations in marking are very great in different individuals, and in the same 

 individual at different ages. The fur, also, is longer in winter than in summer. 



The Lynx is undoubtedly the most dangerous and destructive beast of prey now left in Europe ; 



* Felis lynx. 



