234 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



SYSTEMATIC AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



FELID^. 

 Lynx borealis canadensis (Gray). Canada Lyux. (Esk. Tukhtu-lik). 



In a series of fifteen adult skulls the largest has a basicranial length of 125'""' and a zygo- 

 matic width of 95"™. It is presumably that of a male individual, but iu this, as in the majority 

 of the remaining species to be considered, the .sex was unfortunately not ascertained. 



The largest skull in the Natioual Museum collection (621G) from Peel River has a length* of 

 115"™ and a width of SO™" only. It is, however, a female. A skull of the European Lynx from 

 Sweden (1034) greatly exceeds iu size the Alaskan skull previously mentioned. Its length is 114""" 

 and its width 112""". 



The skull of the Canada Lynx may be distinguished at a glance from those of other Amer- 

 ican lynxes by the shape of the visible parts of the presphenoid and the position of the anterior 

 condylar foramen. The presphenoid is broadly flask-shaped, and the anterior condylar foramen 

 looks downward and is not confluent with foramen lacerum posterius. 



In other American lynxes the foramina referred to are confluent, and the visible portion of 

 the presphenoid is linear or triangular in outline. The European Lyux agrees with the Canada 



Lynx in these details. 



List of si>ecime):s and measui-emenis. 



Biograpliical notes. — The range of the lynx is well defined by the exteut of the forest area in 

 Alaska. It is a tree-loviug species and rarely leaves the shelter of woods even to extend its forays 

 into the alder thickets which scantily replace the trees near the coast of Bering Sea and the Arctic 

 Ocean. Owiug partly to this fondness for a wooded country it is unknown ou the islands of 

 Bering Sea, and only reaches the shore of this sea at one point, where the spruce forest extends 

 to the coast at the head of Norton Sound. On the Arctic coast it is found near the shore at one 

 point near the head of Kotzebne Sound. Its range north is coincident with that of the trees, and 

 reaches about latitude 71°. 



Lyuxes are most numerous along the water-courses of the interior, where close thickets of 

 cottonwoods, alders, and willows, with spruces and white birches irregularly distributed, afford 

 them fine shelter. In these thickets, also, their favorite prey, the northern rabbit, is most 

 numerous. During winter the snow bears good evidence of their habits. Their tracks lead from 

 thicket to thicket, and, at times, from one piece of woods to another, but their irregular wandering 

 is mainly confined to the friendly shelter of the trees. 



*Here, and on subsequent pages, tlie terms "length" and " width," as applied to skulls, refer to the basi-cranial 

 length and the zygomatic width respectively. The basi-cranial length is measured from the anterior margin of tlie 

 central pair of incisive alveoli to the center of a line joiuing the surfaces of the two occipital condyles. The zygo- 

 matic width is the greatest width between the opposite zygomatic arches. 



