8 



The next creature of the cat family (probably extinct in this 

 State) is the larger of the two lynxes {Lynx borealis or Canade?isis), the 

 northern or Canadian lynx. This lynx has been killed in Connec- 

 ticut since the beginning of this century. If I mistake not, in the 

 original Greek language from which the name lynx comes, it 

 means a glarer, and certainly the "lynx-eye" would seem to 

 deserve this description. 



The smaller lynx {Lynx rufus), or bay-lynx, is still not rare in 

 Connecticut ; as witness the fact that not less than five of them 

 have been killed in the town of Essex alone, in the past year, 

 1895. This, in common speech, is our wildcat. I have seen one 

 caught in Litchfield County that was said to weigh 35 pounds. 

 This is the same creature for the killing of which our legislature 

 in 1856 authorized a bounty of five dollars to be paid. While the 

 favorite prey of this creature is the wild rabbit, it is about as 

 destructive in a sheepfold in the night season as a bull dog would 

 be, and more destructive in a poultry-yard than any fox could be. 



From the cat family we pass to that of the dog. And here 

 we have, or have had, the wolf. Our wolf was the gray species, 

 known in zoology as Cam's occidentalis, or western dog. There are 

 several varieties in this species, and I suppose ours to have been 

 the variety griseo-albus, or pearlish gray-white. The Mohegan 

 tribe of Indians derived its name from an Algonkin word mean- 

 ing wolf. 



These animals were very common here and much effort was 

 made to destroy them. Our General Court in 1647 ordered a 

 bounty of ten shillings to be paid by either of the towns of Wind- 

 sor, Hartford, Wethersfield, or Farmington, within whose limits 

 any wolf was killed. In 1662 the bounty was increased to fifteen 

 shillings in every township. In the Code of 1650 it was enacted 

 that the colony should pay a bounty of ten shillings, " by reason 

 of wolves, which destroy great numbers of our cattle." In 1667, 

 the bounty was made sixteen shillings — half to be paid by the 

 colony and half by the township within whose limits the killing 

 was done. " Wolf pens " (which really were wolf pits, or wolf 

 pounds) were built in the towns, and probably also on lands not 

 within any of the townships. Sometimes the Indians (who were 

 not handy in constructing these pits) were supposed to steal 

 wolves from pits belonging to White people, in order to secure the 

 bounty paid to the captors. This led the General Court to repeal 

 the bounty law, so far as Indians were concerned, whether they 

 " kill or steale " wolves. " Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored 

 mind," etc. So late as the revision of 1808, a bounty of ten dol- 

 lars for each adult wolf, and five dollars for each whelp was pro- 

 vided in our laws. 



