The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-07-05
THE LYNX
Of California Treacher-
Gus and Troublesome.

California has in her hills the
largest and most kind hearted of the
great fighters, the grizzly. and at the
same time the smallest and most
treacherous, the red lynx. Most hun.
ters call them "wild cats" but they
are not-the real wild cat has q long
tail, and lives only in Europe; in
fact, he's almost extinct now, and old
hunters dread the wailing midnight
cry of hungry lynx more than they
do all the growls of grizzly ever let
out For when lynx is maddened by
hunger, he fears neither man nor
beast, and most of the animals of the
forest give him the road without wait
ing for him to ask for it. In Canada,
and even in the northern row of states
of this nation, the lynxes grow to be
much larger than they do in here
in the warmer climate of the South
west. There, too, they are hunted for
their fur, but here that fur is worth
less, and, save for those killed by an
occasional hunter, the lynxes hold un-
disputed sway in the foothills.
The trouble is that the rascals do
not stay in the foothills, but wander
all over wherever their fancy smells
chicken, for that is their special de-
light. and they terrorize outlying poul.
try farmers accordingly. They never
make the mistake that tn efabled fox
did of getting into hole through which
they cannot return with a fat hen
of young turkey. In the low lands
they stay around the thick willow
groves, never forgetting the way to
an unguarded chicken coop by night
During the day they sleep in thick
grass or weeds, or sometimes curled
up like a kitten on broad limb No
matter how soundly they may Gbe
sleeping you can never catch one
mapping" For at the slightest sound
of your approach he will clear the ten
or fifteen feet between his nest and
the ground and be off like a flash in
the underground. About the only way
to get these fellows Is with hounds,
and then generally one or two of the
dogs get pretty severely chewed up.
In the hills the lynxes usually stay
in thick underbrush or in caves dur
ing the day, coming out to work hav.
oc in the quail coveys by moonlight.
Then, if the night be right, the hound
hunter has real sport rousing the
round eyed owls with his shouts of
encouragement to the dogs, which are
not always ready to rush into the
teeth of an angry cat.
1t Is almost impossible to trap
cat; though hungry lion may oc-
casionally be caught in this manner.
Now and then cat can be run into a
trap previously set along a runway,
and in this way the lumbermen of the
pineries take many of the
cats that infest the great forests of
the north. The further south you go
the smaller the lynxes become, until
the family winds up with the little
pampas cat of the South American
plains. Our lynx, however. is the
most savage of all and the hardest
for any dog, no matter how good he
may be, to master. In a fight cat
has an immense advantage over
dog in that he can fight with all fours,
al usually does so. There is little
worse can befall green pack of dogs
than to shake an old lynx out of a
tree into their midst. When a lynx
fights, he doesn't bite and let go like
a wolf or dog, but bites and hangs on
like bulldog, while his claws keep
up sort of snare drum accompani-
ment on the dogs ribs. It takes
mighty good dog to do up lynx,
and when thoroughbred hunter gets
such a dog 1t takes mighty good
price to buy him.-Los Angeles Times.