Lynx
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lynx. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a common name for the different varieties of Felis lynx, zoölogists think, of the different species lynx, or, as some of the genus Lyncus. The Greek lyngx was probably the caracal. Lynxes shared LYNX with leopards the duty of drawing the chariot of Bacchus; Pliny calls them the most " sharp-sighted of all quadrupeds," hence the epithet lynx-eyed. The lynxes are all of moderate size, but larger than the true cats; limbs long, tail short and stumpy; ears tipped with a pencil of hair, the cheeks bearded, and pads of the feet overgrown with hair; color, lightbrown or gray, more or less spotted with a darker shade. They are fierce and savage, and prey on sheep and poultry. Their skins are valuable as fur. Felis lynx is the common lynx, found in Scandinavia, Russia, the N. of Asia, and formerly in the forest regions of central Europe; F. cervaria is a native of Siberia; F. pardina of Turkey, Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain; and F. isabellina of lynxes: F. canadensis, the Canada lynx, Tibet. The New World has also four the most N. species; F. rufa, the bay or red lynx, extending nearly over the United States , but giving place in Texas and in Oregon and Washington to F. and the S. of California to F. maculata, fasciata. Professor Flower is of opinion that, on further investigation, all these will be found to be varieties of a single species . lius, between the head of Ursa Major In astronomy, a constellation of Heveand the star Capella. None of the stars in the group are larger than the fourth magnitude. born in Buckland, Mass., Feb. 28, 1797.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a large, grayish, densely furred, fierce member of the cat family. Although called the Canada lynx it ranges throughout a large part of northern America. It is about thirty-nine inches in length and stands eighteen inches high. It has a broad, flat head with a fierce face and a bobbed tail, black at the tip. A long pencil of stiff black hairs rises from each ear. The feet are heavily furred, enabling the lynx to tread lightly over loose snow, as though it wore snow shoes. The chief food of the lynx consists of rabbits and partridges, although nothing that is flesh comes amiss. It is not aggressive, but is a dangerous antagonist when brought to bay or when defending its young. The lynx hunts less by scent than by virtue of its keen sight, giving rise to the expression "lynx-eyed." There are a number of Old World species. The American wildcat, known also as the bay lynx, is a very similar, reddish-gray animal, about thirty-five inches in length, with like habits. It is more generally distributed in the older settled parts of the country. See Cat
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 lumped every lynx into Felis and passed on Professor Flower's guess that all of them would prove "varieties of a single species"; modern taxonomy went the other way, giving lynxes their own genus, Lynx, with four accepted species — the Eurasian lynx, the Canada lynx, the Iberian lynx and the bobcat that Aiton's calls the bay lynx. The greatest change is in fortunes rather than names: the Iberian lynx of "Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain" collapsed to well under 100 animals in the early 2000s, and an intensive Spanish and Portuguese breeding and release programme has since rebuilt the population into the thousands, one of the best-documented recoveries of any cat. Eurasian lynx, which Collier's noted had gone from the forests of central Europe, have been deliberately reintroduced since the 1970s in Switzerland and later in Slovenia, Germany and elsewhere. The Canada lynx, once shot as a killer of "sheep and poultry," is now protected as threatened in the contiguous United States and is studied mainly for the way its numbers rise and fall with the snowshoe hare cycle. The constellation Lynx, listed by Collier's, remains one of the 88 official constellations.
Written for this edition, 2026.