412 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
is more strictly defined. Rafenesque even confounded it 
into fifteen varieties; and when a Naturalist is led into such 
errors, it ig not astonishing that the popular judgment should 
make mistakes.- Indeed, I myself for a long time held the 
opinion, based not only on the varied size, markings, length 
of tail and ear-tufts, of the specimens which I had either 
killed, or seen others kill, but as well upon a patient survey 
of thousands of skins at the fur warehouses-in St. Louis— 
that the catamount, or common wild cat, was a cross upon 
the oceolet and Canada lynx. The oceolet is a true feline. 
Indeed, all these singular variations have had their effect on 
me, for I had seen the tail from one inch to four, and the 
pelage not alone faintly banded, but mottled, through such 
regular transitions, from plain olive brown to distinct mark- 
ings, and then to the very peculiar black and unmistakable 
rosette, which belongs to the pelage of the oceolet, that I 
could not help thinking that the Canada lynx and the oceolet 
may have perpetuated a middle species, partaking, as well in 
habits as in markings, the characteristics of the two. The 
authors of the Quadrupeds of America, however, take a different 
view of the subject. They certainly bring up many formidable 
instances to show that they are right; and until I have spent 
as many years as they have in personal dedication to such 
investigations, I shall fully accept their nomenclature. They 
remark, in general terms, concerning the “ pelage :” 
There are, however, at all seasons of the year, even in 
the same neighborhood, strongly marked varieties, and it is 
difficult to find two individuals precisely alike. 
Some specimens are broadly marked with fulvus under 
the throat, whilst in others the throat as well as the chin is 
gray. In some, the stripes on the back and spots along 
the sides are very distinctly seen, whilst in others they are 
scarcely visible, and the animal is grayish-brown above, with 
a dark dorsal stripe. 
There are six species of lynx known to the old world, and, 
