1842.] A Monograph of the Species of Lynx. 741 



ceed to offer an account of each of them, drawn up from personal exami- 

 nation of specimens in every instance. 



The Lynxes may be characterised as merely short-tailed Cats, of 

 middle size, with a tuft of lengthened hair at the tip of each ear, 

 and wherein the small foremost upper false molar-tooth, which appears 

 to be constantly present throughout the rest of the genus, is regularly 

 deficient in the adult, if not in the young also. The Caracal excepted, 

 they have a ruff of lengthened fur bordering the sides of the visage, 

 beneath which is a pointed tuft pendent on each side of the throat, 

 denominated their mouchetures. In general, they are light-made ani- 

 mals, with contracted flanks, and rather high on the limbs, and the fur of 

 most of them is in winter long and very dense, having deciduary whitish 

 tips, which more or less conceal the under- colour, but are gradually shed 

 at the approach of summer, when the ground- tint has always a rufous cast 

 (more or less bright, according to the species), and is variously spotted 

 with black, the markings inclining to form oblique streaks on the flanks : 

 the pendent mouchetures are white, with a black line near their outer 

 border, beyond which the edge is of the hue of the body ; the ears have 

 the usual dark marks at the base and tip (common to most of the 

 genus), and which shew very conspicuously in winter, from contrasting 

 with the nearly uniform hoariness of the fur generally, — as does also 

 a black tip to the short tail, which latter is more or less ringed above 

 this, and has a very truncate appearance. 



These typical Lynxes are solitary in habit, and frequent mountain- 

 forests, where, however, they seek their prey chiefly on the ground; but 

 climb trees with facility, to which they usually resort on apprehension 

 of danger. They are timorous animals, but very destructive to lambs 

 and calves, fawns, and specially to feathered game and hares ; but they 

 seldom attack larger animals, and only, perhaps, when urged and rendered 

 desperate by famine. They commonly reside in some rocky cavern 

 or burrow of their own excavation ; where the female produces two 

 or three kittens in the spring. Their voice much resembles that of the 

 domestic Cat, only uttered in a fuller and deeper tone: and it may 

 be remarked that the talons of these animals, though slender, are 

 highly formidable, being adapted rather for prehension, or seizing their 

 prey, than for tearing away the skin of it, which latter seems to be 

 the chief purpose to which the Lion and Tiger apply these weapons, 



