Foxes most frequently capture their prey in fair chase, running them down, as shown by the double spoor ending in blood. Lynxes never chase; they kill by stalking, and a crouching spoor ends in a spring. Both these habitually carry away or bury all they do not devour on the spot.
From the end of January onwards (that being the pairing-season) foxes may often be seen abroad by daylight in couples, and in such case, provided they are seen first, are easily brought-up by “calling.” Lynxes never show-up so by daylight, but an hour or two before dawn their weird wailing cries may be heard in the bush from mid-February onwards.
The mongoose is perhaps the least easily secured, being absolutely nocturnal and running so low (like a giant weasel) as to be almost invisible, however slight the covert. It is, moreover, an adept at concealment, and will scarcely be detected even at thirty yards if stationary. The best way to secure specimens of badger and mongoose is by digging-out their breeding-earths or warrens. An initial difficulty is to find the earths amid leagues of scrub or rugged mountain-sides; and even when located it may be necessary to burn off half an acre of brushwood before the spade can be brought into action. From one set of earths we have succeeded in digging out five big mongoose alive. That night, though confined in strong wooden cases, they gnawed their way out, and were never seen more, albeit their prison was on board a yacht anchored in mid-stream and half-a-mile from shore.
A few such days and nights as these teach that wild Spain cherishes other animals besides the game, to the full as interesting and even more difficult to secure.
If we are asked (as we often have been before) why we molest creatures which have no value when killed, we reply that almost without exception our Spanish specimens have gone to enrich one collection or another, public or private, and that during the year in which we write this the authors spent a fortnight in obtaining a series of these animals for our National Museum at South Kensington, with the following results:—[56]
Four lynxes—two males, 30¼ and 31 lbs.; two females, 18½ and 23 lbs.—representing both types, namely, (1) that with many small spots, and (2) the handsomer form with fewer large and conspicuous blotches.
One wild-cat (an exceptional specimen)—a male of 15 lbs., with yellow irides instead of the usual cold, cruel, pale-green eyes like an unripe gooseberry. This cat was what the Spanish keepers describe as rayado = banded, i.e. the spots are arrayed in regular series or interrupted bands rather than scattered promiscuously. This race is distinguished as gato clavo, the ordinary wild-cat being known as gato romano.
Several other wild-cats (Gatos romanos)—males weighing from 10¾ to 12½ lbs.; females weighing from 7½ to 8¼ lbs.
In the sierras wild-cats run heavier than this, for we have killed in Moréna a wild-cat that scaled 7¾ kilos, or upwards of 17 lbs.
Two badgers—male, 17½ lbs.; female, 14½ lbs. These Spanish badgers are blacker in the legs than British examples, and their fore-claws are more powerfully developed, possibly in this case through living in sand. Really big males weigh nearly double the above.