569 
FLESH-EATING ANIMALS. 
CARNIVORA. 
PANTHER; PUMA. 
Felis concolor Linnzeus. 
(Mantissa, 1771, p. 522.) 
Kennicott reports a single individual in Cook county. Individ- 
uals must often have followed up the larger rivers in the state in 
early times. Among the earliest settlers of this county I find a 
general impression that panthers were sometimes seen here, but I 
have been unable to obtain any definite data. 
CANADA LYNX. 
Felis canadensis (Kerr). 
Lynx canadensis Kerr, Anim. Kingd., 1792, pp. 32, 157. 
This species is listed by Kennicott as found in Cook county, 
and two species of lynx, or wildcat, are recorded as being in the state 
by various early writers. Owing to the common confusion of the 
two species it is perhaps impossible to tell now to what extent, if at 
all, this species was present within the state. It is not likely that 
it was ever seen by a white man within this county. 
WILDCAT. 
Felis ruffa Gtldenstaedt. 
(Nov. Comm. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersburg, XX., 1776, p. 484.) 
Wildcats were formerly found throughout the state wherever 
there was extensive heavy timber, and they are still not uncommon 
in the heavily wooded portions in the south. I obtained the skull 
of a specimen at Olive Branch, Alexander county, in 1908. A 
number of them had been killed in that vicinity. Merriam says 
that in the Adirondacks they nest in hollow trees, making a soft 
bed of moss. From two to four young are produced in a litter. 
In thinly settled sections the wildcat often destroys the farmer's 
lambs, small pigs, and poultry. Their regular food in a wild state 
consists of rabbits, squirrels, and other small mammals, together 
