THE LYNX
WHAT the cougar is as an enemy to the useful big game, the bob-cat is to small game and the young of big game. He, however, lacks the cunning of the former, being easily called or trapped, and therefore as a class, and excepting individual cases few and far between, will never become a menace to either the sportsmen's fraternity or to stockgrowers. Where hundreds of them infest the country—as in certain sections of the Bad Lands—they only serve to check the increase of the millions of cottontail rabbits, which would otherwise so rapidly multiply that they would become a destructive pest throughout the cultivated sections of the country.
LYNX. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Forefoot. (2) Hind foot (small specimen; nail marks are generally invisible). (3) Imprint of fox. (4) Lynx, ordinary gait. (5 and 6) Fox, ordinary gait. (6 and 7) Comparison of fox and lynx trails in snow. (8) Lynx, running. (9) Domestic cat.
The tracker, trailing bob-cats like deer, can often surprise them at prowling, or jump them at close range from their beds, which are usually found under deadfalls or overhanging rocks, etc. Until their suspicions are aroused they are very foolish and the writer has shot not a few with a .22 rifle when still-hunting for rabbits. When called, they have not sense enough to run away if missed by the first and even second shot. In hunting them with dogs they give good sport, and not infrequently get away by entering holes or putting the dogs to shame in some other manner.
RIGHT FRONT PAW OF LYNX