C. W. Dickinson, experienced hunter and naturalist, of Smethport,
McKean County, describes the true Pennsylvania wild cat (_Lynx Rufus_),
sometimes called the Bob Cat, and erroneously called the Catamount,
as follows: “The size of the average grown wild cat is: Length from
nose to base of tail, 30 inches; tail 4 inches; weight, about 26
pounds. The longest cat I ever saw weighed tipped the scales at just
32 pounds. The wild cat only raises one litter of kittens annually,
the time they are born being the 15th or 20th of April. The number of
kits in the litter varies from two to five. The weight of a kitten at
eight months after birth will be from thirteen to seventeen pounds.
It takes them about three years to get their full growth. It is the
opinion of many of the old hunters that the cat, as well as the
panther, did not like to stay in a locality inhabited by the grey
wolf, as the wolf usually roamed about in droves or squads of from two
to ten or twelve in a pack. It seems that the cat family was deathly
afraid of the wolf family. Their fear was due to the superior numbers
of the wolf family traveling together. It was really surprising how
fast the cat family increased in this locality after the wolf became
extinct. There are three times as many wild cats in McKean County
today as there were fifty years ago, notwithstanding they have been
hunted hard since the bounty laws were enacted. Yet I do not think
there is more than one cat now to where there were three fifteen years
ago, while grouse and rabbits, both ‘snowshoe’ and ‘cottontail,’ are
also decreasing. The wild cat is a great hunter. Naturally he is a
night prowler. He is fond of ’coon, rabbit, ground-hog, all kinds of
birds that he can catch, and he can capture a mouse as quickly as a
house cat. Wild cats are handy with their paws; they have large nails,
which are as sharp as needles.” The present range of the wild cat is
practically the same as it was when S. N. Rhoads’ admirable work on
Pennsylvania and New Jersey animals appeared in 1903, which was the
entire State of Pennsylvania, except Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver,
Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer and Washington Counties in the west,
and Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties in
the east, thirteen out of sixty-seven counties, but its numbers are
now sadly diminished since Rhoads made his researches. Preying as it
does on sickly and weakly game birds, it was a tower of strength in
combatting the “grouse disease” and the “quail blight,” and also kept
in check the ravages of destructive rabbits and other small mammals.
In every district where it has been extirpated the game birds and
game animals have decreased with it, until it would look that tame or
hand-raised game will alone survive the next quarter of a century. The
folly of destroying the wolf, fox and wild cat will not be understood
until it is too late. Nature decrees all forms of life or none--except
the domesticated or semi-domesticated specimens of animals and
birds. If the present bounty law, giving $6 for every wild cat’s scalp,
is continued, few cats will be left in the State by 1921. They are
wholly absent from many localities where they were fairly numerous
five years ago. They are practically extinct in the Blue Mountains,
the Bald Eagle Mountains, and the main chain of the Alleghenies. In
Northeastern Pennsylvania a few are taken annually at Blooming Grove
Preserve, in Pike County; in Clinton County some are trapped every
year in Otzinachson Park--drawn thither by the rabbits and entrails of
deer--but these preserves will be responsible for the destruction of
all the cats in their respective localities; they will last longest in
parts of McKean, and Cameron Counties, away from settlements, in the
Seven Mountains in Centre and Mifflin Counties, and in Eastern Clinton
County, in the Zimmerman country, unless destroyed by the increasingly
frequent forest fires. There is a great diversity of coloring in
specimens of Pennsylvania wild cats. They are mostly of a cinnamon
brown color, black striped or spotted on the legs and shading into a
white or marbled on the belly. Some are of a rich chestnut brown in
color, beautifully spotted with black, while a few are of a grey-drab
in color, the black markings resembling bars rather than dots. They
usually have a white patch on the ears.
[Illustration: EMMANUEL HARMAN, born May 27, 1832
An authority on the cat family in Central Pennsylvania]