Figure 54. — ^^Distribution of Lynx rufus rufus. 



Kellogg (1^37, p. 457) gives external measurements of 11 adult males 

 from West Virginia as follows: Total length 870 (787-935) ; tail 146 

 (133-165) ; hind foot 171 (162-195). According to Jackson (1961, p. 

 402) the male bobcat averages about 10 percent longer than the female 

 and weighs about 30 percent more. 



A female from near Fort Washington, Prince Georges County, has 

 the following cranial measurements : Greatest length 128.0 ; zygomatic 

 breadth 83.7; interorbital breadth 23.2; maxillary toothrow 40.4. 



Habitat and habits, — Bobcats prefer wild heavily wooded or brushy 

 areas, particularly in rocky habitats and swamps. In Maryland the 

 animal is still fairly numerous in the wilder areas of the Allegheny 

 Mountain and Ridge and Valley sections, but is very scarce in the 

 rest of the State. No specimens have been taken in the Eastern Shore 

 section for many years, and presumably the animal is extirpated there. 

 According to Mansueti (1950, p. 21) the species has been ruthlessly 

 exterminated in Maryland as "vermin," and is everywhere much scarcer 

 than in the past. 



Mansueti (1950, pp. 22-23) has gathered together a number of bob- 

 cat records in Maryland. He says that Meshach Browning is reported 

 to have killed scores of bobcats in the early 19th century, and that 

 they were an everyday occurrence in Garrett County then. Marye 

 (1945) says that a generation ago bobcats were destructive to sheep 

 near the Falls of the Patapasco River, and that in his time they were 



