HABITS OF THE LYNX. 73 



bowlings, audible at a great distance. He only quits his chosen solitude at the last extremity, and 

 mounts on a branch, where he crouches at full length among the foliage, which half hides without 

 incommoding him. With eye and ear on the watch, he remains whole days motionless, with eyes half 

 closed, and in a state of apparent sleep, which is only the more dangerous, for then he is most 

 completely cognisant of all that is passing around him. The Lynx lives by stratagem. Like all Cats, 

 he has not a particularly fine sense of smell, and his pace is not sufficiently rapid to allow him to 

 pursue his prey. His patience, and the skill with which he creeps noiselessly, bring him close up to 

 his victim. More patient than the Fox, he is less cunning ; less hardy than the Wolf, he leaps better 

 and can resist famine longer. He is not so strong as the Bear, but keeps a better look-out, and 



CANADIAN LYNX. 



has sharper sight. His strength resides chiefly in his feet, jaws, and neck. He prefers to make 

 his hunting as easy as possible, and only chooses his victim when food abounds. Every animal 

 he can reach with one of his bounds, which rarely miss their aim, is lost and devoured ; if he 

 misses, he allows the animal to escape, and returns to crouch in his post of observation, without 

 showing his disappointment. He is not voracious, but he loves warm blood, and this passion makes 

 him imprudent .... If he comes upon a flock of Goats or Sheep, he approaches, dragging 

 his belly along the ground, like a Snake, then raises himself with a bound, falls on the back of his 

 victim, breaks its neck or cuts its carotid with his teeth, and kills it instantaneously. Then he licks 

 the blood which flows from the wound, rips open the belly, devours the entrails, gnaws off a part of 

 the head, neck, and shoulder, and leaves the rest."* So bloodthirsty is his nature, that a single indi- 

 vidual has been known to destroy forty Sheep in a few weeks. Fortunately for the inhabitants, this 

 plague is now nearly extinct in Central Europe. It is extremely rare in the Alps, though it was 



59 



* Tschudi, quoted by Brehm. 



