412 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



is more * strictly defined. Rafenesque even confounded it 

 into fifteen varieties ; and when a Naturalist is led into such 

 errors, it is not astonishing that the popular judgment should 

 make mistakes. Indeed, I myself for a long time held the 

 opinion, based not only on the varied size, markings, length 

 of tail and ear-tufts, of the specimens which I had either 

 killed, or seen others kill, hut as well upon a patient survey 

 of thousands of skins at the fur warehouses in St. Louis 

 that the catamount, or common wild cat, was a cross upon 

 the oceolet and Canada lynx. The oceolet is a true feline. 

 Indeed, all these singular variations have had their effect on 

 me, for I had seen the tail from one inch to four, and the 

 pelage not alone faintly banded, but mottled, through such 

 regular transitions, from plain olive brown to distinct mark- 

 ings, and then to the very peculiar black and unmistakable 

 rosette, which belongs to the pelage of the oceolet, that I 

 could not help thinking that the Canada lynx and the oceolet 

 may have perpetuated a middle species, partaking, as well in 

 habits as in markings, the characteristics of the two. The 

 authors of the Quadrupeds of America, however, take a different 

 view of the subject. They certainly bring up many formidable 

 instances to show that they are right ; and until I have spent 

 as many years as they have in personal dedication to such 

 investigations, I shall fully accept their nomenclature. They 

 remark, in general terms, concerning the "pelage:" 



There arc, however, at all seasons of the year, even in 

 the same neighborhood, strongly marked varieties, and it is 

 difficult to find two individuals precisely alike. 



Some specimens are broadly marked with fulvus under 

 the throat, whilst in others the throat as well as the chin is 

 gray. In some, the stripes on the back and spots along 

 the sides arc very distinctly seen, whilst in others they arc 

 fccarcely visible, and the animal is grayish-brown above, with 

 a dark dorsal stripe. 



There are six species of lynx known to the old world, and, 



