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[AUG. I0, 1907. 








California Wildcats and Lynx. 
SHASTA Mountains, 
, Cal., July 30—Editor 
Forest and Stream: 
Since reading the article 
by Mr, Hardy upon the Canada lynx and the 
wildcat, and the later observations by various 
contributors, I have tried to find time to send 
you some notes from 
animals in California. 
With all consideration for Mr. Hardy’s views, 
I protest against the utter annihilation of the 
animal’s character. Maine wildcats may differ, 
but I do not believe the best backwoodsmen of 
the Yankee region would care to choke the Cali- 
fornia cats twice, nor try to kill them with very 
small sticks. 
my experience with these 
I do not consider them cowardly animals and 
believe no one should choke live ones who has 
any solicitude for his comfort or his personal 
appearance. They are not as formidable as 
griz- 
zlies or lions, but I have known one to whip 
four able ranch dogs of various breeds at one 
time and make good its escape. Two of my dogs 
that would fight bear, or anything in the woods, 
were unable to tree another lynx that they at- 
tacked. It whipped both of them and escaped. 
In my hunting experiences of about thirty 
years I believe I have killed fifty lynx and wild- 
cats, this without hunting for them. They have 
been met with when I have been after other game 
or have been treed near my various camps. At 
the present time I have half a dozen skins about 
my house and den. 
It is true the cats are not aggressive fighters, 
and any small dog may sometimes tree them. A 
tree is their natural refuge, and any alarm may 
cause them to go up a tree. The same is true 
of the cougar or the panther and probably the 
leopard and most of the cat tribe; but when a 
lynx desires to come down and go about other 
business, the dog man that stops him will 
have about all the entertainment he can use if 
he omits the use of firearms or other villainous 
devices. Give a full grown lynx a bush or two 
as cover and the dog that can kill him will have 
to use about all his courage and ability. I do 
not believe there is a thirty pound dog that can 
whip a lynx of the same weight in open ground. 
It is a mistake to consider these animals cow- 
ardly. Their nature is subtle like that of all the 
cats, and they are doubtless more peaceably in- 
clined than most carnivores, but if we have in 
Lin ig 
either \merica an animal that will make a hotter 
corner in proportion to his size when forced to 
fight, I will have to be shown to admit it. 
They 
are cautious, subtle and gentle except when their 
ferocity is aroused by. hunger or attack. Their 
teeth and claws are not long, but they are sharp, 
and the animal is about as active and sinewy as 
any that goes about upon four feet. I consider 
him one of our handsomest,’ cleanest and most 
intelligent animals 
By the way I bethink me that T have the com- 
plete skull and jaws of one. including the teeth 
intact. To paraphrase my lord Hamlet: 
The skull had a tongue in it, and could (bite) once. 
The skull is reasonably high of forehead. Its 
cavity had room for a brain of good proportion 
and its jaws even now have a business looking 
attitude. - And there was plenty of room for a 
pair of round, bright eyes that could see in the 
dark as well as in the light. To throw such 
light as I can upon the subject I offer the follow- 
ing brief but exact accounts: 
While riding in search of stock 
resident of the county, Mr. J. J. Bell, his dogs 
treed a large lynx. There were four large dogs 
and they would attack anything from wild hogs 
to bulls. The cat was but ten or twelve feet up 
the tree and we dismounted and Bell tried to 
prod the lynx out of the tree with a pole. Be- 
fore he could reach him the animal sprang to 
with an old 
the ground, evaded the four dogs by dodging 
and fighting and reached a second tree. 
We followed and Bell again tried to reach the 
lynx with the pole. It sprang from branch to 
branch, without trying to go very high, and 
watching its opportunity, it again sprang down, 
and fighting the dogs as it ran, got into a third 
tree, a very large oak. As we were now near 
a dense thicket of chaparral Bell decided to go 
home for a rifle. He had to ride about two miles 
and return, and I was left to keep the cat up 
the tree with the help of the dogs. For a time 
the lynx kept me busy from one side to the other 
of the tree, but after a while he crouched down 
and was content to stare me in the eyes, occas- 
ionally opening ‘his mouth as wide as he.could. 
and showing his teeth, of which he seemed to 
have a full set. In his threats he made no sound, 
but seemed to intimate very clearly that he would 
bite if he had to do it, but that he would rather 
be left alone. When Bell returned with his rifle 
he aimed to break a paw of the lynx in order 
to let the dogs finish him. He aimed a trifle too 
high and shot him through the heart, killing him 
instantly, or nearly so. I wanted the lynx to 
get away, but Bell believed they killed his sheep 
and he encouraged his dogs to hunt them. 
As this one had a fine skin I started to tie 
him behind my saddle, and my horse, a gentle 
but somewhat particular animal, surprised me 
by kicking both the cat and myself something 
more than a rod. Being but a boy, I narrowly 
escaped a jolt, if not a complete knockout. Ail 
that saved me from being abrased was the fact 
that I was’ so close to the horse his heels were 
a sort of catapult which lifted, rather than im- 
pinged, as it were, and I alighted, after a little 
time, in some bushes. While resting I skinned 
the cat and managed to smuggle the skin aboard 
the horse without further delay. 
When upon another ride with Mr. Bell the 
same dogs treed another lynx. This one jumped 
out of the tree as we reached it and ran into a 
clump of vines and willows on the river bank. 
All four dogs went in after him ferociously. We 
saw the lynx lie back against the vines and fight 
the four dogs off for a.full minute. He then got 
deeper into the jungle, and after an hour or so 
of effort all the dogs came out, more or less 
scratched and torn, and beyond question de- 
feated. 

Again, while returning from a hunt after deer 
with a friend we saw a lynx drop from a tree 
into the trail a few yards ahead of us. My two 
hounds, that would keep a bear quite busy, sprang 
after it. The dogs overhauled the cat within a 
hundred yards and stopped it four or five times 
before it got to cover. Each time the dogs were 
in such close quarters with the cat we could 
not get in a rifle shot, although we followed for 
some time. After chasing the cat up a timbered 
mountain for a mile the dogs returned to us 
without having been able to tree the animal, and 
both of them Had scratches’ and cuts to show 
that they had tried repeatedly at close quarters. 
While fishing for trout near camp upon an- 
other occasion I saw some animal following me 
at close range. Dropping my rod, I walked care- 
fully around some rocks and bushes and came 
within ten feet of a lynx. This one immediately 
turned, jumped away a few yards and crouched 
down. He remained there until I went a short 
distance to camp and returned with a gun. When 
he saw me returning he started away, but he was 
too leisurely inclined to save his life. | beiieve 
this was the only one I ever saw that seemed 
aggressive, and I think he was more inquisitive 
than otherwise. 
I could add twenty similar anecdotes showing 
the same traits of the cat—stealth and caution— 
but I have not heard of any person who doubts 
their fighting capacity in this region, 
RANSACKER. 

At the Zoological Park. 
THE account of the Zoological Park buffalo in 
a recent number of Forest anp STREAM calls 
renewed attention to the park and to the changes 
that have taken place there within a year. The 
interest and beauty of the buffalo herd cannot be 
too strongly insisted on. - They form a splendid 
group of beasts and seem to be in the very best 
of condition. The huge bulls, motherly cows 
with their calves, young straight-horned bulls and 
frisky young heifers all look ‘well, though of 
course many of them are still wearing their win- 
ter coats which flap about them like the rags of 
a tramp in the summer breeze. 
The two European bison from the forest of 
the Prince of Pless are more impressive than 
they have ever appeared. They are now in splen- 
did condition and the bull is a most massive 
animal, and—perhaps on account of the greater 
height of his quarters—seems larger than a buf- 
falo bull. 
In the antelope house there are a number of 
new animals, notably the African -two-horned 
rhinoceroses and the extraordinary Sudan A fri- 
can elephants.. Of these there are two, which 
have been in the park for about a month only. 
This species comes from the Blue Nile coun- 
try. It has ears of extraordinary size and is the 
largest of all the elephants. They are very rare 
in captivity and the Zoological Park is fortunate 
to have secured these. They are male and female 
and are about two and a half years old. The 
male stands a little over four feet nine inches at 
the shoulder; and weighs 1,225 pounds, whilé the 
female measures four feet eight inches and weighs 
1,080 pounds. The tips of their tusks are only 
just beginning to show. It is predicted that if 
no accident happens to the male, which has been 
called Khartoom, he may attain a height of eleven 
feet and a weight of 12,000 pounds. . The female 
should be nearly as large. Among the other in- 
teresting beasts in this house is the hippopotamus 
and the very beautiful zebras. 
Passing around to the house where the ante- 
lope used to: be, now occupied by the white goats, 
it was interesting to see the five individuals there. 
They have shed their coats and the new ones 
have started so that they look fairly smoota. 
They seem to be in admirable condition, though 
like many another animal from higher altitudes 
they suffer more or less from the heat. They 
are now more than two years old and even in 
their cramped quarters are an inspiring sight. 
The pheasantry ,with its yards modernized, in 
good order and filled with plants, is a place where 
one might linger long. -It was most interesting 
to see in one of the yards a brush turkey, that 
extraordinary Australian bird that builds a mound 
of decaying vegetation in which it deposits its 
egg to be hatched by the heat of the mass. The 
young bird, when hatched, scratches its own way 
out of its prison and takes care of itself from 
that time on. 
On the lake, which a few months hence will 
be so frequented by migrating wildfowl from the 
north, were seen plenty of ducks and snow 
geese. The open air cages of the bird house. the 
lion house and the monkey house were occu- 
pied’ and interesting. 
A strange and beautiful Raptore, seen in one 
of the cages of the old bird house, is the bateleur 
eagle, extraordinary for its brilliant colors, its 
very short tail and its fierce aspect. Visitors to 
the park should not fail to see this extraordinary 
bird, which may be found in the most south- 
easterly of the open air cages at the old bird 
house. 
The outdoor yards about the reptile house were 
full of occupants, tortoises and lizards of one 
kind and another, and all of them worth study. 
So with the bears, which young and old alike 
always delight to watch. 




