TREE-CLIMBING CATS 



21 



tinent north of Mexico, which are yet sufficiently 

 wild to shelter them from man. They inhabit 

 with equal facility forests, mountains, canyons, 



Drawn by J. Carter Beard. 



CANADA LYNX. 



sage-brush plains, and even deserts. They prey 

 chiefly upon rabbits and hares, grouse, prairie- 

 "dogs," ground squirrels, and any other living 

 ■creatures, except porcupines, which they can 

 •catch and kill. They are not courageous, or 

 disposed to fight except when cornered, and so 

 far as voluntarily attacking human beings is 

 concerned, Lynxes are no more dangerous than 

 rabbits. 



In North America the genus Lynx is repre- 

 sented by two well-marked types. 



The Canada Lynx 1 is a heavily-furred, short- 

 bodied, long-legged bob-tailed wild cat of a pep- 

 per-and-salt gray color, standing about IS inches 

 high at the shoulders. It is readily recognized 

 by the long pencil of stiff, black hair rising from 

 the tip of each ear, and its huge, hairy paivs. Its 

 big eyes and long side whiskers give it a really 

 terrifying countenance, particularly when it 

 snarls. To the lone hunter who camps in the 

 dark and gloomy forests inhabited by this creat- 

 ure, it seems a very dangerous animal; but in 

 reality it is not so. Those who have hunted it 

 say it is not courageous, and at close quarters is 

 easily killed with a stick. It is a good climber, 

 swims well, but on land runs rather poorly, with 

 a galloping gait. Although found in a few local- 

 ities in the northern United States, its real home 

 is in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and the 

 1 Lynx can-a-den'sis. 



Northwest, up to Latitude 60°. A good aver- 

 age-sized male specimen collected by Professor 

 Dyche in British Columbia measured as follows: 

 Height, 17-J inches; head and body length, 32 

 inches; tail, 5 inches; girth, 17-J inches. 



The weight of a full-grown specimen is 22 

 pounds, and the young are two in number. This 

 species is rarely seen in captivity, and is al- 

 ways desired by zoological parks and gardens. 

 Living specimens are worth from $10 to S-10 

 each. 



The Bay Lynx a is also called the Red Lynx, 

 Wild Cat or Bob Cat, according to the locality 

 in which it is found. Owing to variations in its 

 color, and in some other characters, several sub- 

 species have been described, but these are too 

 closely related to the type to be set forth sepa- 

 rately here. This species is marked by the ab- 

 sence of the long ear-pencil of the Canada lynx 

 (although sometimes a small pencil is present), 

 by the small feet and the warm brown tone in 

 the color of the fur. 



Western specimens are sometimes so strongly 

 marked with round black spots that we feel im- 

 pelled to recognize the "Spotted Lynx" as a dis- 

 tinct species; but when we find others from the 

 Atlantic coast also spotted, besides others of the 

 standard reddish gray, we are compelled to refer 

 all of them to the species of the Bay Lynx. In 

 the Atlantic states, the standard color for this 



E. R. Sanborn, Photo.. N. Y. Zoological Park. 

 THE OCELOT. 



animal is a mixture of rusty red, gray and black- 

 ish brown, with the red so prevalent as to have 

 given a name to the creature. In the West, the 

 '-' Lynx ru'fus. 



