The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-03-25
-MAINE'S BOB CAT 4
 COWARDLY BEAST
Runs Away at First Intimation
 of Danger
BREED IS ALMOST EXTINCT
Hotel Owner in the Woods Offers Five Dollars Apiece for Every Scalp Brought in-But Few
 Are Killed.

 From the New York Herald.
 The most deeeiving animal of the Maine woods is the lanky, hungry eyed and wholly disreputable bob cat, or deer cat" of the French Canadian yoyageur' and the lynx rufous of the naturalists. It is deceivng for the reason that IL looks formidable and dangerous, when In fact 1t is a cheap and common coward that will run away from the smallest dog and if 1t cannot escape by running, 1t will climb a tree and often sit among the limbs covering for hours at time
 Though a near relative of the lynx cana densis, or loup oeryier, 1t has many points of difference, chief among which are Its cowardlce, it's fondnoss for carrion ana its mangy and uncleanly appearance. Ihe Maine bob eat is the hanger on or the cat race, the poor relation that comes ia after the feast is finished and gnaws the bones and eats the crumbs, snarling and snapping all the time, and more dis- agreeable when it has gorged Itself than it is when almost famishing from hum ger.
 T see that some of the papers are making a great scare about bob cats just now" said Game Warden Walter l. Neal. who examines all the game which passes through Bangor in the open season.
 T have been watching the Bangor trains three months in the year for the last nine years and 1 have seen fewer bob cats and loup cerviers go west this season than in any previous year. As TOT loup cerviers, l do not think l have seen one for three or four years. Last fah MT David Merrill, the oldest fur buyer in Maine told me that he believed the loup cerviers were extinct in Maine, as the price of the belts had gone up from s2 to S75O in three years and in spite or the advance in price he had not bought a loup cervier skin for six years.
 No Complaint Made.
 Since October 1, l have talked With twenty or more game wardens on duty in eastern Maine, and have seen perhaps one thousand hunters every one of whom has spent from a week to two months in the Maine forests, and as yet have heard no complaint about the havoc wrought by bob cats or loup cerviers.
 When a hunter from the city shoots specimen of either species he usually takes 1t home to have it mounted as sample of his prowess. and if these crea- lures had been one-tenth as plentiful as reported I should have seen more bodies in transit l believe that there are not more than five hundred specimens of both species running wild in Maine to- day.
 If a hunter will come to my hotel and pay regular rates for his board, said Fred Fowler, proprietor of the Norcross House, which is the starting point for all hunters who go up the west branch of Penobscot river. T will agree to pay him S5 a head for every bob cat or loup cer- vier he can shoot between now and spring. I have been roaming In the woods of Maine from Mattawamkeag to Katah- din for the past forty years.
 T know the map of Eastern Maine and most of the residents. Thousands of hunt CTS and fishermen come to my hotel every year. If bob cats or loup cerviers were plentiful I should have heard of 1t. My offer of So a head for bob. cats and loup cervers holds open until the fishing sea son opens next May. Fact is, l want to earn some money during the dull sea- son and take this way of doing it.
 Few Are Killed.
 Yes I know about pr. Patten of Am herst getting bounty of g a head put on wildcats by the legislature of 1897. In two years the state paid for less than 1000 animals, and half of these Were snug gled across from New Brunswick Six years later Trad Campbell of Cherryfeld. had a bounty of 25 cents a head placed on hedgehogs and secured an appropria- tion of 5000 to foot the bills for two years
 And what was the result? Why, in two years Maine paid for the claws and noses of nearly 10000 hedgehogs and near ly bankrupted several poor towns before they could get back the money they had paid out I mention these two instances to show how the people of Maine will hunt for a small bounty if there are any animals to hunt.
 Tn fact, you can never tell how many breeds of animals there are in Maine woods until there is a bounty offered. l suppose if there were a good prem ium placed upon uncorns and whang- doodles somebody would make money shooting these creatures, though most of us think they do not exist.
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