Felis Caracal. Linn.

The Caracal, which is unquestionably identical with the Lynx of the Ancients, but whose original name has been, in modern times, usurped¹ by an animal of northern origin, utterly² unknown to the Greeks, and distinguished³ by the Romans by a totally different appellation⁴, is a native of most of the warmer climates of the Old World, infesting⁵ probably as large an extent of the surface of the earth as the Lion or the Leopard⁶ themselves. Throughout the whole of Africa, from Egypt and Barbary to the extremity⁷ of Caffraria, and in the southern half of Asia, at least as far eastwards⁸ as the Ganges, he follows, as it were, in the footsteps of those larger and[58] more formidable beasts. So uniformly indeed has he been met with in the train of the Lion, that many early writers, determined⁹ to find a reason for every thing, laid it down as a settled fact that the Caracal, equally with the Jackal, although in a different manner, was the Lion’s purveyor¹⁰; that he accompanied that terrible animal in the pursuit of his prey¹¹; pointed¹² it out to him by means of his more delicate nostril¹³ and piercing sight; and, when his royal master had finished his meal, received a portion of the flesh in reward for his good and loyal service. But the greater part of this fanciful tale is now known to have had its origin only in the imagination of men who had caught a glimpse of the real truth, and made up for the want of accurate observation by the invention of a theory almost as

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