CASPIAN LYNX. 
M2 
Caspian lynx,, or chaus. 
The head of this lynx is a little more oblong 
than that of the common cat. Its restless shining 
eyes are adorned with a most brilliant golden pupil : 
its nose is oblong and bifid ; its whiskers are 
scarcely two inches ; its ears are erect, oval, and 
lined with white hairs ; their outside is reddish, 
and their summits are tufted with black hairs ; 
its hair is coarser than that of the cat or common 
lynx, but less so than that of the v/olf ; it is shortest 
on the head ; but on the back it is two inches 
long. The colour of its head and body is a yel- 
lowish brown, or dusky ; its breast and belly are 
of a bright brown, nearly orange ; it has two 
obscure transverse dusky bars near the bending 
of the knee ; its feet are like those of the cat, 
clothed with hair, and black below ; its tail, thick 
and cylindric, reaches only to the flexure of its 
leg ; it is of the same colour with the back, tipped 
with black, and having three black rings near its 
end. In its general appearance it has the form of 
the domestic cat ; its length is two feet six inches ; 
its tail eleven inches ; its height before nineteen 
inches, behind twenty. It is sometimes found so 
large as to measure three feet. It inhabits the 
reeds and woods in the marshy parts that border 
on the western sides of the Caspian Sea. In man- 
ners, voice, and food, it agrees with the wild cat ; 
it conceals itself during the day, and in the night 
wanders over the Hooded tracts, in search of prey : 
it feeds on rats, mice, and birds, but seldom climbs 
trees ; it is exceeding fierce, and never frequents 
the haunts of men. It is so impatient of captivity, 
that one taken in a trap, by which it had its leg 
broken, refused for many days the food placed by 
it ; but, in its rage, devoured the fractured limb. 
