D. V. TAUTLINGER, OF IOWA CITY, IA., SHOOTING GLASS BALLS FROM A BICYCLE. 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY E. B. HUGHES. 



LYNX MACULATUS. 



I send you by this mail a photograph of 

 a lynx, that was taken while the animal 

 was in a trap. The cat measured 42 inches 

 from tip of nose to tip of tail. 



E. B. Hughes, Manitou, Col. 



I have just captured a fine specimen of 

 Rocky mountain lynx, or bob cat, a nice 

 yotmg one. about half grown. Most of the 

 old hunters around here call it a lynx, 

 while some claim it's a cat. Just where to 

 draw the line between a lynx and a cat is 

 what I want to know and thought Recrea- 

 tion might give me some reliable informa- 

 tion on the subject. I have the fellow alive 

 in a cage, and he is so different in his ways 

 and habits from the ordinary wild cats I 

 have had before, that I am pretty sure he is 

 a lynx instead of a cat. 



H. N. Beecher. 



ANSWER. 



The probabilities are that your captive is 

 a spotted lynx {Lynx maculatus). This ani- 

 mal stands exactly midway between the 

 Canada lynx and the bay lynx, or " wild- 

 cat " of the United States, and elsewhere. 

 The ear of the latter has no pencil of hairs 

 at its tip. The spotted lynx (of Colorado, 

 Utah, etc.) has a pencil about half as long 

 as that of the Canada lvnx. 



Last week I shot, on a salt marsh near 

 here, a fine specimen of canvasback duck, 

 and was lately shown a mounted wood 

 duck, by a gentleman who killed it here 2 

 years ago — 2 birds quite out of their usual 

 range. 



Geo. G. Cantwell. Juneau, Alaska. 



