Alimafias 345 



That night, though confined in strong wooden cases, they gnawed 

 their way out, and were never seen more, albeit their prison 

 was on board a yacht anchored in mid-stream and half-a-mile 

 from shore. 



A few such days and nights as these teach that wikl Spain 

 cherishes other animals besides the game, to the full as interesting 

 and even more difficult to secure. 



If we are asked (as we often have been before) why we molest 

 creatures which have no value when killed, we reply that almost 

 without exception our Spanish specimens have gone to enrich one 

 collection or another, public or private, and that during the year 

 in which we write this the authors spent a fortnight in obtaining 

 a series of these animals for our National Museum at South 

 Kensino'ton, with the followino- results : — ' 



Tour lynxes — two males, 30^ and .')1 lbs.; two females, 1(S^ and 23 lbs. 

 — representing both types, namely, (1) that with many small spots, and 

 (2) the handsomer form with fewer large and conspicuous blotches. 



One wild-cat (an exceptional specimen) — a male of 15 lbs., with 

 yellow irides instead of the usual cold, cruel, pale-green eyes like an 

 unripe gooseberry. This cat was what the Spanish keepers describe as 

 rajiado = banded, i.e. the spots are arrayed in regular series or interrupted 

 bands ratlier than scattered promiscuously. This race is distinguished as 

 <j((fo cidvo, the ordinary wild- cat being known as rjato romano. 



Several other wild-cats (Gatos romano^) — males weighing from 10£ 

 to 12|- lbs.; females weigliing from 7^ to 8^ lbs. 



In the sierras wild-cats run heavier than this, for we have killed 

 in Moruua a wild-cat that scaled 7f kilos, or upwards of 1 7 lbs. 



Two badgers — male, 17^ lbs.: female, 14^ lbs. These Spanish 

 badgers are blacker in the legs than British examples, and their fore-claws 

 are more powerfully developed, possibly in this case through living in 

 sand. Keally big males weigh nearly double the above. 



Ten fuxes {Vulpcs mclnnogaster) — six males weighing 1 3|, 14, 15 

 16^, 16^, 17 lbs.; four females weighing 11, llf, 13^, 14 lbs. 



Besides " small deer," such as rats and mice, voles, moles, and dormice, 

 to say nothing of a whole red-stag and a whole wild-boar ! 



[Postscript] 



March 2, 1907. — ChiUando this evening at the Oyillos del 

 Tio Juan Roque, a big grey sow with numerous progeny came 



' Several of these animals, moreover, yield excellent fur. 



