CARNIVORA 235 



mice, birds, snakes and frogs, and has been known to kill even deer 

 and caribou. Its numbers fluctuate markedly with the rise and fall in 

 numbers of hares." The Hudson Bay Company exports from 4000 to 

 75,000 skins per annum; in 1906, 4 superb skins bringing $14.40 

 each, while in 1921-1922 the average price was $20.38. 31 



Dixon says that the food habits of the wildcats are 63 per cent benefi- 

 cial to mankind, 27 per cent harmful and 10 per cent neutral, as shown 

 by 118 stomachs, the contents of which consisted largely of rodents: 

 Mammals, 65 per cent (harmful species 44.5 per cent, beneficial 20.5 

 per cent) ; waste material 19.6 per cent (vegetation, soil, etc., not 

 food); undetermined, 3.1 per cent; parasitic worms, 7.5 per cent; 

 birds, 3.1 per cent; fish, 6 per cent, probably bait from the traps. 32 One 

 lynx is reported to have eaten a skunk. 33 A recent news-press item 

 states that the Prussian government has placed wildcats on the list of 

 protected mammals, because of their usefulness in the destruction of 

 rodents. 



Dogs are said to relish the flesh of wildcats, a trapper "regularly 

 cooks wildcat flesh for the family table and claims it is most tender 

 and agreeable," and lynx "flesh is a regular article of diet in the north- 

 west," white and well flavored, 34 but it will not become popular. 



Felidae not herein mentioned have pretty much the same habits as 

 those of their nearest North American relatives. The cheetah, of India 

 and Africa, possesses great speed for short distances and has been 

 trained for hunting. "In semi-domestication, for which it is well fitted, 

 it has been the plaything of princes, Asiatic, African, European (in- 

 cluding our King William IV) for centuries. Cheetah hunting is a 

 slothful sport, well suited to an indolent race." 35 Ocelots (Felis pardalis 

 and subspecies) feed upon rodents, reptiles and birds, killing even the 

 rhea, and the contents of one stomach consisted chiefly of spiny rats 

 (Proechimys) , with a few peccary hairs. 36 Various members of this 

 family, particularly the lion, tiger and leopard, are favorite animals in 

 circus menageries and zoological parks. 



n Cross and Dymond, The mammals of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum of 

 Zool. Handbook No. i, p. 20, 1929. Seton, Lives of game animals, i, Part I, pp. 162- 

 209, 1929. 



32 Dixon, Journ. Mammalogy, vi, 36-38, 1925. 



83 Barton, The skunk eaten "by the lynx, Amer. Naturalist, xn, 628, 1878. 



84 Ross, Dogs dislike fox flesh but relish that of bobcats, Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 

 250, 1928. Seton, Lives of game animals, i, Part i, pp. 162-209, 1929. 



"'Jennison, Natural history: animals, p. 74, 1927. 



"Nelson, Wild animals of North America, p. 415, 1918, as cited by Seton. Mil- 

 ler, Journ. Mammalogy, xi, 15, 1930. Enders, Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 289-290, 1930. 



