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Animals Of Burford Township by Mel Robertson Lynx or "wildcats", in varying sizes, have inhabited our woods for many years. In the mid 1800's a large lynx followed my great grandfather through a woods near the Harley road on Sunday night as he was returning from church either in Cathcart, Salem, or Victoria! The next day Richard Catton shot a large lynx in Parnell's woods north of Burford. It was presumed that this was the same animal that had followed my great grandfather but no one could be certain. In any case it was so large that Robert Whale, the local artist, painted a picture of it. This picture, which is now owned by the city of Brantford, portrays a magnificent animal. Other wildcats have been reported in the Township and in his letter to the Hamilton Scientific Association of Oct. 3rd. 1899. Wm. Yates of Hatchley wrote, "The recent capture of a lynx in a extensive cedar swamp a few miles from here brought to notice the question of the origin of these ferocious and somewhat overgrown editions of f elinae and the probability of their T>eing merely expanded instances of the domestic cat. There are many instances on record where house cats have been driven forth frcm settlements and of these outlaws having grown.. .to a size much greater than that of a tame cat." "One such instance is remembered in this neighbourhood where a certain grey grimalkin attained gigantic proportions and rambled about the woodland area a terror to the majority of "Stay - at - home" felines. The bush ranger frequently visited poultry coops during the night in the role of an egg-stealer; and also had a habit of killing kittens in the maternal nests and fiercely overpowering the said kitten's natural defenders. In an instance...one of these tramp felines visited a dog kennel wherein were a litter of puppies with eyes yet unopened and in wantoness slew the whole of them." "The striped markings of some grey household cats are about as well defined as those of Mr. Lynx and the white or black spots at the end of the tail is no indication of a generic difference as the same occurs at tunes in house cats. Then the tree-climbing habit being much extended in the pursuit of squirrel or bird prey...must \ tend to and increase of bodily size and muscular development". (Wm^ Yates) Lynx or wildcats are not completely extinct in our woods and I have heard reports in recent years from farmers who have noticed small "Wildcats" in their bush lands and only a few years ago one such cat was seen and heard in Burford village by a former Hydro man who was very familiar with animals from long service in the northern woods. In addition to the larger animals reported by Mr. Yates and others, it is evident that at one time the Township enjoyed a considerable fur trade. On March llth. 1886, the Burford "Tunes" included the following item. "Some enterprizing individuals in consequence of the high price of skunk skins are actively engaged in trapping this odiferous animal. By report it is a money-making business as the skins are worth about $1.00 each and a man frequently captures 4 or 5 a day". This income will seem trivial to-day but we must remember that in 1886 a man would cut and split firewood all day for .25 cents and think he was well-paid and most laonrers received much less than $1.00 a day. Consequently, the four or five dollars a day that a man could make trapping skunks was a considerable income. The size of Burford Township's fur trade can be judged by Wm. Yates report to the Hamilton Scientific Association in 1893 which included this item, "A Hatchley fur buyer named Powell - our local storekeeper, told me that he has bought during this winter 2400 muskrat skins, 670 skunk skins, 400 racoon skins 450 mink skins, upwards of 50 fox skins and 2 pine marten .... the man told me 'that many of the fox skins were not in prime condition owing to the very warm fall weather.... ^Writing further the Hatchley naturalist observed "One of my acquaintances shot a fine fox about a half mile from my place beginning of December. It weighed 12% pounds, By report 15 pounds is said to be the weight of the largest and fattest foxes". Since Yates' observations covered only the Hatchley area it is apparent that the number of fur - bearing animals of commercial quality in the Township, was considerable. However by 1907 Yates recorded that foxes were almost extinct locally and that the number of skunk and racoon skins were considerably diminished.