370 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 10 



the canon peering cautiously over each ridge and scrutinizing 

 the landscape for sheep, when the animal was descried bounding 

 down a ravine leading into" the canon. At the first shot the 

 beast stopped short and crouched; at the second it sped on 

 and out of sight down the gorge. On June 1, possibly the same 

 lion or its mate was seen at a distance in almost the same place. 

 This time the animal was executing apparently useless maneuvers 

 across a levelish area sparsely covered with brush. It bounded 

 sinuously across and back again, and in movement and attitudes 

 reminded the observer of the capers of a cat leaping through 

 and over tall grass. 



Subsequently the bushes which the animal had hurdled were 

 found to be four feet high; some, more. Lion tracks were seen 

 in the vicinity, where the nature of the ground permitted, and 

 it was presumed that there was a den somewhere down the 

 gorge. Sheep sign was plentiful all about; in fact a band of 

 twelve were jumped from the side of the identical ravine where 

 the first lion was shot at, on the following day, May 28. It is 

 not improbable that the association was voluntary, on the part 

 of the felines. 



Lynx eremicus calif ornicus Mearns 

 California Wild Cat 



Reported by local residents from various parts of the region. 

 Three specimens were captured by us: no. 2333, male, Carrizo 

 Creek, 3000 feet, June 20; no. 2335, male, Strawberry Valley, 

 6000 feet, July 18 ; No. 2334, male, Tahquitz Valley, 8000 feet, 

 July 26. It is probable that wild cats range all over the moun- 

 tain and that but one form is represented. Still, the skin from 

 Carrizo Creek, on the desert slope, is so startlingly paler colored 

 than the other two that there might seem good grounds for sus- 

 pecting the existence of a desert and of a Pacific slope race. 



It is evident, however, that the Carrizo Creek animal is con- 

 siderably more worn : the pelage is more ragged and not so heavy ; 

 the tone of color may have been affected, as is believed to be 

 the case in plumage, by the dryer atmosphere and intense light, 

 granting that cats are here abroad in daylight, as they are known 

 to be elsewhere. 



