THE OREGON SPORTSMAN L 5 J 



connection are too small to make conclusions more than tentative. 

 The observed facts are worthy of notice, however, and their ex- 

 planation, which will doubtless be forthcoming in the future, will 

 inevitably lead to a clearer insight into the family relations and 

 life history of the species. 



WEIGHTS OF FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 



BY 



ALFRED C. SHELTON 



University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 



Discussion often arises over the weights of certain animals. 

 We hear of bob-cats weighing forty pounds, or a 'coon which 

 weighs thirty pounds, so these remarks on the weights of a few 

 animals may not be amiss. 



This winter the writer spent some seven weeks with the trap- 

 pers in the high Cascades, and had an excellent opportunity to 

 secure data on this very subject. 



A large bob-cat, in fact one of the largest brought in to 

 McKenzie Bridge this winter, is now in the University of Oregon 

 museum and this animal, a male, weighed just twenty pounds 

 and twelve ounces. Large male bob-cats will average from 

 twenty to twenty-two pounds. One Cascade trapper tells me the 

 largest bob-cat he ever caught weighed twenty-three pounds. 

 A female cat will not average over twelve or thirteen pounds. 



For their size, beaver are by far the heaviest of the fur- 

 bearing mammals. They are compact, and very heavily bnilt. 

 AVell muscled and solid, with bodies set close to the ground on 

 short legs, their appearance greatly deceives their true weight. 

 A small young beaver taken this winter at McKenzie Bridge. 

 not over two-thirds groAvn, weighed twenty-nine pounds and two 

 ounces. A large specimen taken last spring at Medford, Oregon, 

 weighed just forty pounds, while another, an old female, taken 

 this winter at McKenzie Bridge, weighed just forty-five and 

 one-half pounds. 



'Coons from the coast streams have been reported to me as 

 weighing as much as thirty or forty pounds. I have no reliable 

 data on these animals from the coast region, but I do know that 



