GILPIN ON THE MAMMALS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 11 



back, and a very small pencil to the tip ; some very obscure dusky 

 lines along the top of back, and a few dark lines diverging from 

 the inner corner of each eye to the forehead, and each side of the 

 nose ; the soles of fore and hind feet nearly black, the pads naked, 

 and the tail -with several obscure dusky annular marks around it, 

 the tip black above, white beneath. A small summer skin from 

 Mr. Thomas, Halifax, now before me, is bright reddish brown on 

 back and sides, a deep brown mark down centre of back, outside of 

 fore and hind legs light reddish; belly, throat and inside of leg 

 whitish, with black bars ; the same markings on ears and forehead 

 as in winter skin ; scarcely a pencil to tip of ear ; the fur short and 

 stiff, except on the belly, where it is fine and loose. This animal 

 is finer and more handsome in its ficjure and slenderer in its lesjs 

 than the Loupcervier; its head is finer and bolder, and altogether 

 it has less of the stealthy, awkward gait of the latter. It loves the 

 seaboard and the sterile granite hills. Where it abounds few or 

 no Loupcerviers are seen. Its food is the same, and it is equally 

 destructive to sheep. Its bolder nature brings it down into the 

 open country, and often into the small towns and villages. Perhaps 

 forced by hunger it then prowls about yards, seizing poultry in 

 open day, and is soon shot by a crowd of men and boys. 



In studying and comparing our Lynxes, we find that one, the 

 Loupcervier, is a true boreal animal with a limited range. Its 

 short tail, large collar, long pencil to the ear, and furred foot, its 

 large pale yellow eye, (the onyx eye of the ancients,) are all typical 

 of the Lynx of the Old World. On the other hand, the Wild or 

 Red Cat has become indigenous at a far later period. Its naked 

 foot, pencil disappearing in summer from the ear, finer fur, smaller 

 collar, and its ringed and longer tail, all give it a more southern 

 centre of origin, as they also approximate it to the genus ^' Felis." 

 Baird and Audubon both give it a range from Mexico to the Rocky 

 Mountains, where they are smaller and redder and the pencil dis- 

 appears on the ear, yet all preserve the peculiar half-moon white 

 patch on the ear, which Baird justly considers typical. It is 

 curious, too, that the less boreal animal is the more abundant^ — the 

 Wild Cat skin being exported at the rate of five hundred and fifty 

 or more and still abundant, whilst the Loupcervier is becoming 

 scarce and is exported at the rate of about two hundred and fifty. 



