led these animals in the rounded, cat-like form of its
head. Its erect tufted ears, however, and short tail showed that it
differed, in some respects, from the tiger kind. The tail, indeed, was
the oddest thing about it. It was not over five inches in length,
curving stiffly upward, and looking as if it had been "stumped," as the
tails of terriers usually are. It was not so, however. Five inches was
all the tail it ever had; and this shortness of tail, with the thick
clumsy legs--but, above all, the high tufted ears, approaching each
other at their tips,--enabled the young hunters to tell what it was--_a
lynx_. It was that species known as the "bay lynx" (_lynx rufus_),
commonly called in America the "wild cat," and sometimes the
"catamount." It was the Texas variety of this animal--which is deeper
in colour than the common bay lynx, and, I think, a different species.
It was evidently doing its best to get near the little hares, and seize
one or both of them. It knew it was not swift enough to run them down,
but it might get close enough to spring upon them. It was favoured to
some extent by the ground; for, although it was open prairie, the white
withered grass of the previous year rose here and there over the new
growth in tufts, large enough to conceal its body as it squatted.

Nearly in a direct line between the lynx and the hares grew a solitary
tree, of the _pecan_ species, with spreading limbs; and almost under it
was a little patch or thicket of briars, weeds, and high grass--no doubt
where some old log, or the carcass of an animal, had mouldered away, and
fertilised the soil. For this the lynx was making on one side, and
towards it the hares were feeding on the other.

The latter had got very near it, and near, too, to the boys, who could
now distinguish their long, erect ears, slender limbs, and graceful
motions--resembling, in fact, those of the common hare. Their colour,
however, was different. It was a rusty fern, lighter underneath, but in
no part--not even under the tail--did any white appear. It was a
beautiful sight to behold these innocent little creatures, now nibbling
at the blades of grass, now leaping a few feet over the sward, and then
settling comically upon their haunches. The young hunters thought it a
beautiful sight; and so would you, boy reader, had you witnessed the
manoeuvres of these miniature hares.

An odd-looking object now presented itself directly in front of them,
an