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Wild Cat
Also called: Bay Lynx, Bob Cat, Catamount.
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Length.—38 inches.
Description.—Legs rather long, ears tufted, tail very short (6 inches). General colour yellowish-brown, tinged with rufous (much redder in summer), spotted with dark brown or black, narrow lines on the head and blackish stripe down the back, chin and throat white, below white spotted with black.
Range.—Eastern North America, replaced in Florida, Nova Scotia and the West by allied varieties.
Range.—Florida.
Range.—Nova Scotia.
Wild cats or bob cats were once common in all the thick woods of this country, but are now only to be found in the most thinly settled backwoods districts.
These big stub-tailed cats do not appear to insist on deep, dark forests for their homes, though they seldom remain long in a region where much of the land has been cleared and cultivated. Hillsides and clearings overgrown with brambles and young growth are quite as much to their taste as dense forests of heavy timber.
For the greater part of the year they hunt alone or in pairs, prowling on soft furry paws through bushes and tangled berry patches where rabbits have their paths.
Lacking skill at following a trail, and the speed and tireless perseverance which make foxes and weasels such successful hunters, they catch most of their game by lying hidden in ambush and springing out suddenly on whatever small game comes within reach.
They also go still-hunting after the manner of cats generally, trusting to luck that may come unexpectedly upon some little beast or bird busy about its own affairs.
When the wild cat hears the faintest movement in the underbrush he instantly crouches with all four feet beneath him, and remains perfectly motionless, watching and listening, intent to learn whether it is an enemy to be avoided or possibly game for his dinner. In the latter case he creeps forward with the utmost caution, planning, if possible, to head off his victim in order to seize it at the first alarm. When out hunting, the bob cat utters a wild scream from time to time; its object evidently is to startle any creature that may be in hiding near by into betraying its presence by a startled jump.
And certainly any animal would require strong nerves to remain unmoved when this jarring yell bursts through the stillness close at hand. It has been described as a low sort of growling, followed by a sudden quick repeated caterwaul, or yang-yang-yang. I have frequently heard just such a cry in the woods at night, but have to confess that I have never been able to trace it to the creature that made it.
Following up these various voices of the night is baffling work at all times, and there is still much confusion of ideas regarding them and much yet to be learned.
I have more than once heard a red fox utter a scream that would do credit to a cougar, and the farmers here in New Hampshire tell me that the skunk has a most blood-curdling yell of its own. How much truth there is in this I am unable to say, but the belief is too widely held in these parts to be wholly overlooked.
Wild cats roam about in the twilight of early morning and evening more than at midday. They sleep in hollow trees and caverns among the rocks and ledges, and in some such place in a warm nest of leaves they hide their kittens. In warm weather they like to doze in the sun, either stretched along a horizontal bough or curled up in a little patch of sunlight in the midst of a berry-patch. They wander about all winter in the snow and cold, living as best they may, stalking hares and grouse among the evergreen, or watching patiently beside a squirrel-hole in a tree-top, just as a domestic cat will stand guard at a mouse-hole in the barn.
They resemble the domestic cat in a number of ways, being great mousers and destroyers of small birds and their nests, and equally fond of catnip, rolling over and over in the strong-scented herbs and rubbing it into their fur and eating the blossoms and leaves.
Wild cats are at all times shy and exceedingly cautious about showing themselves, but are savage fighters when cornered or defending their kittens; a dog that offers to molest them is pretty certain to be severely used before he is allowed to escape. In thinly settled towns wild cats will occasionally raid the farmyards and carry off turkeys and chickens, but as a general thing they confine themselves to wild game. It is said that when the country was new they had a habit of following the flocks of wild turkeys from place to place, lying in ambush to waylay them as they fed among the beech woods and thickets.