The Christians in Abyssinia do not eat the flesh of this animal, as holding it unclean, neither do the Mahometans, who in many respects of this kind in abstinence from wild meat, have the same scruple as christians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed those on Mount Libanus also. Those of this kind that I saw were very fat, and their flesh as white as that of a chicken. Though I killed them frequently with the gun, yet I never happened to be alone so as to be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all smell and rankness, which cannot be said of the rabbit.
I have no doubt that the El Akbar and the El Webro of the Arabs, are both the same animal. The El Akbar only means the largest of the Mus-montanus, under which they have classed the Jerboa. The Jerd, and El Webro, as also the Ashkoko or Akbar, answer to the character of having no tail.
BOOTED LYNX.
This is a very beautiful species of Lynx, and, as far as I know, the smallest of the kind. His body from the tip of the nose to the anus being only 22 inches. His back, neck, and forepart of his feet are of a dirty grey. His belly is of a dirty white, spotted with undefined marks, or stains of red. Below his eyes, and on each side of his nose, is a reddish brown,the back of his ears being of the same colour, but rather darker; the inside of his ears is very thickly clothed with fine white hair, and at the end is the pencil of hairs distinctive of this genus. On the back of his forefeet, he has a black streak or mark, which reaches from his heel two inches up his leg. On his hinder foot he has the same, which reaches four inches from the heel, and ends just below the first joint, and from this circumstance I have given him his name.
Lynx.
London Publish’d Dec.r 1.{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.
His tail is 13 inches long, the lower part of it, for 6 inches, is occupied with black rings. Between these rings his tail is nearly white, the rest much the same colour as his back. From his nose to his occiput is 4 inches and three quarters. From one eye to the other, measuring across his nose, is one inch and three quarters. From the base of one ear to that of the other, is 2 inches and 2/8ths. The aperture of the eye three quarters of an inch, and of a yellow iris. The length of his ear from its base to the point of the pencil of hairs at the top of it, 4 inches and three quarters. From the sole of his forefoot to his shoulder, as he stands, 13 inches and three quarters. From the sole of his hind foot, to the top of his rump, 15 inches and a quarter.
He has very much the appearance of a common cat, both from the length of his tail, and the shape of his head, which however is broader, and his neck thicker than that of a domestic animal. He is an inhabitant of Ras el Feel, and, small as he is, lives among those tyrants of the forest, the elephant and rhinoceros. I do not mean that he has any hunting connections with them, as the jackal with the lion, I rather think he avails himself of what is left by the hunters of the carcases of those huge beasts. But the chief of all his food is the Guinea-hen, of which the thickets and bushes of this country are full. For these he lurks chiefly at the pools of water when they drink, and in this act of violence I surprised him. He is said to be exceedingly fierce, and to attack a man if any way pressed. At this time he mounts easily upon the highest trees; at other times he is content with hiding himself in bushes, but in the season of the fly he takes to holes and caverns in the ground. I never saw its young ones, nor did I ever hear any noise it makes, for the shot killed him outright, but did not in the least disfigure him; so that the reader may depend upon this representation of him as I have given it, with all possible truth and precision.