546 



KEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



that this was about the end of their existence in that county. Dr. 

 Plummer says that they were seldom seen near Richmond after 

 1823. Edwin Dinwiddie, in T. H. Ball's history of Lake County, 

 says that two were seen about Pleasant Grove in that county from 

 1855 to 1867, but that there are no authentic records since the lat- 

 ter date. 



Mrs. Annie Anderson, of Oxford, relates the following story 

 concerning the occurrence of lynxes in Benton County: "In Au- 

 gust, 1870, when I was about ten years old, my brother and I were 

 gathering berries on the banks of Pine Creek, about four miles 

 south of Oxford, when I spied in some hazel brush what I thought 

 to be a maltese cat. I called to the kitty and started to catch it, 

 when my brother stopped me, saying that he did not like the looks 

 of its eyes. It was standing still, staring at us, evidently as much 

 surprised as we were. In the following autumn some hunters killed 

 a lynx in the same place, and it proved to my maltese kitty or one 

 like it. I have not heard of any since until about three years ago 

 (1905) some boys killed a bobcat about a mile from the same place. " 



Mr. Theo. F. Upson states that he killed a "bobcat" near Lima, 

 Lagrange County, in the fall of 1857, and knows of none in that 

 vicinity since. Robert S. White, Jr., killed a "catamount" on 

 Pigeon Creek, Warrick County, in the winter of 1906. This is the 

 latest record that I have been able to obtain. Newspapers fre- 

 quently print more or less sensational stories about wildcats in 

 various parts of the State, and no doubt some of them are true, but 

 I have not been able to verify any of them. As the accounts usually 

 do not state positively whether the animal in question is a wildcat, 

 a wolf, or an escaped circus lion, I have not taken these stories into 

 account. Nevertheless it is very probable that a few wildcats re- 

 main at the present time in the less accessible swamps and woods 

 in various parts of the State. 



Habits. — This lynx is merely a smaller edition of the preceding 

 species and, so far as I am aware, does not greatly differ from it in 

 habits. The smaller size may render it unable to kill some of the 

 animals on which the larger species preys. Both hunt by stealth 

 and rely on chance to find their quarry, since they can not trail it 

 as do the wolves. 



They have learned to hunt even more (luietly since the country 

 has become thickly settled, and thus have escaped extermination. 

 They have a shrill, piercing cry, but this is seldom heard, even at 

 night. Their siz(; and strength is not sufficient to make them dan- 



