202 A SPORTING PARADISE 



are plenty of dauntless hunters and dead shots 

 in all parts of the world, but they are in the 

 minority." (American Animals, p. 290.) 



Though I am still doubtful as to the designation 

 of the wild cat of Muskoka which followed my 

 sleigh during the winter of 1889, yet the above 

 quotations, from unquestionable authorities, de- 

 scribe the leaps and bounds identically with my 

 own observations, and the fact that the Canadian 

 lynx is driven desperate from hunger, may have 

 led him to follow my small ponies in the same 

 manner as he has been known to attack a 

 deer. 



The loup cervier (Felts canadensis] is a shy, 

 roving animal that, though by no means scarce, 

 is seldom seen by the hunter. Its chief food 

 is the American hare, but it also eats grouse, 

 beaver, musquash anything, in fact, it can catch. 

 "I do not believe," says Rowan, " the anec- 

 dotes that one hears sometimes of their attacking 

 men, the following, for instance. It seems that 

 near a certain settlement, a man was walking 

 home at night from the forge, with a set of 

 horse-shoes in his hands. His path lay through 

 the woods. A loup cervier jumped off the branch 

 of a tree on to his neck. The man drove the 



