78 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



prey, notwithstanding theyr hunger, and goe to seeke another booty, neuer remembering that which 

 they had before them, nor yet returne backe againe to eate thereof." 



The lynx is at present confined to the warmer climates of the Old World, throughout the 

 whole of Africa, from Egypt and Barbary to the extremity of Caffraria, and in the southern half of 

 Asia, at least as far eastward as the Ganges; he is generally to be found in the track of the larger 

 and more formidable quadrupeds. It is, however, certain, that the lynx was formerly a native of the 

 greater part of Europe. Bonarus mentions having seen them hunted in Muscovy, Lithuania, Poland, 

 Hungary, and Germany. Gesner says, " There are lynxes in divers countries, as in Russia, Germany, 

 Hungary, and even so far northe as Scotland ; so also they are most abundant in Scandunavia, in 

 Swesia ; so also about Hyelsus and Helsyngia ; likewise in all the Regions upon the Alpes, and in Sylva 

 Martia ; they are also very plentifule in Aethiopia, in France, and Italy, about the River Padus, and in 

 the Island Carpathus. They are sometimes taken in Germany, in the Dutchy of Wertenberg, and 

 that it was once credibly affirmed one of them leaped downe from a tree uppon a countreyman as he 

 passed under the same tree, but being weary, and having an axe on his necke, he received her on the 

 sharp edge thereof, and so killed her, otherwise she woulde soone haue killed him." 



From the circumstance of the lynx being always found in the track of the lion, it was, for a 

 length of time, the prevailing opinion, that, like the jackal, he was one of the purveyors of the lion, 

 being able, by his delicate sense of smell and piercing vision, more easily to direct him to his prey. 

 This opinion, however, has been refuted by late travellers, who affirm, that the motive of the lynx in 

 following the track of the lion, is no other than to satiate himself with the mangled carcasses which 

 the lion may have left. A singular anecdote is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in regard to the fondness 

 of a lynx for the note of the woodpecker. He says, " he was once standing before a cage in which was 

 confined a lynx, in the City of Lyons, with the intent of taking a drawing of the animal ; such, 

 however, was the restless disposition of the brute, that he could not retain him a single minute in the 

 same attitude. On a sudden, a countryman came to the spot, having a woodpecker in his basket, 

 and the bird no sooner began to chirp than the animal stood still, and as long as the woodpecker 

 chirped, he remained in the same attitude; but when the man retired with the bird, the animal 

 resumed his restless motion, and in order to finish the portrait, he despatched a messenger after the 

 owner of the bird, and purchased it of him ; as soon as the animal heard the bird, he stood very still 

 until the business was despatched, and the work absolutely perfected." 



The native ferocity of the lynx is so great, that it is impossible either to tame or to subdue him. 

 In a state of captivity, on the slightest irritation or insult, he expresses his malignity by a kind of 

 snarling scream ; and it is to this very noise that we are inclined to attribute the name of caracal, 

 ■which has been given to the animal. On this head, the very scientific author of the " Tower Menagery" 

 says, " that it is to the striking character afforded by its organs, that the animal is indebted for his 

 modern name of Caracal ; corrupted from his Turkish appellation, which equally with that by 

 ■which he is known in Persia, signifies ' black ear. 1 " We are, however, inclined to consider the 

 word caracal as a corruption of the Latin word corcare, to croak or whine. Thus Solinus, the 

 author of Philomela, says, dum linxes corcando framunt, ursus ferus uncat, (while the lynx croaketh, 

 the wild bear whineth,) and Arlunus says, corcare vox lupce ceruarij (to croak is the voice of a 

 lynx.) 



The animal from which our engraving is taken, is a native of India, from the Nepaul territory ; 

 and from the rarity of an Asiatic caracal being brought to this country, a question has arisen, whether 

 the caracal of India, and the lynx of Africa, be the same species. As no immediate opportunity 

 presents itself in this country for comparing the two animals, the subject must be left open to future 

 discussion. 



