ORDER CARNASSIER. 491 



and by its tail, which reaches to the heel. There is some 

 white above and below the eye, round the lips, under the 

 jaw and throat, as well as under the body, and on the inside 

 of the thighs. A black line passes from the eye to the 

 nostrils, and there is a black spot about the whiskers. It 

 is about eighteen or twenty inches high, and about two feet 

 six inches long. 



The Long-tailed Caracal of Edwards and Buffon does not 

 differ from this, as the Baron informs us. The first Caracal 

 of Buffon was mutilated as to the tail. 



It appears to be the Caracal that the ancients have fre- 

 quently named Lynx, for Pliny says, 1. viii. ch. 30, that 

 the Lynx is a native of Ethiopia ; and Ovid says it comes 

 from India: 



" Victa racemifero Lyncas dedit India Baccho." 



Elian, 1. xiv., ch. 6, gives him pencils of hairs to the ears. 

 Oppian, Cyneg iii., v. 84, who makes two races, the small 

 red and the large yellow, does not mention the spots; and 

 the Lynx of the Mosaic of Palestine is drawn with a long 

 tail. 



We may nevertheless conclude that the name was applied 

 sometimes to the Common Lynx : — 



" Monstrate mearum 

 Vidistis si quatn hie errantem forte sororum 

 Succinctam pharetra et maculosa tegmine Lyncis." 



Probably, however, Virgil may have supposed that the 

 Lynx was like the Panther or Leopard, and the other ani- 

 mals consecrated to Bacchus. 



The name Caracal is from the Turkish kara, black, and 

 kulach, ear. The Persian name, sia-gusch, has the same 

 meaning, sia, black, gusch, ear. 



The Chaus, Booted Lynx, or Lynx of the Marshes, 

 (F. Chaus, Guld.) is intermediate in size between the Com- 

 mon Lynx and the Wild Cat, and in the length of its tail 



Vol. II. 2 L 



