FAMILY CANIDJE. 43 



The American Wolf, hitherto confounded by our systematic writers with the European, 

 offers many varieties, which, as in dogs, seem to affect particular localities. In this State we 

 have two varieties. 



Var. a. Grey Wolf. White or greyish white in winter ; in summer it has short reddish 



hairs. This is the most common kind. 

 Var. b. Black Wolf. Entirely black, more bulky and powerful than the preceding. Aery 



rare. 



The Wolf, in this State, confines its depredations chiefly to deer and other animals. In 

 some of the southern counties, where they were formerly so numerous as to require legislative 

 enactments, they are now entirely extirpated. Vanderdonck, writing from New-York about 

 the year 1645, says, that one of the principal objections to keeping sheep in the Colony, was 

 the number of wolves. They are still found in the mountainous and wooded parts of the 

 State, and, we believe, are most numerous in St. Lawrence and the adjacent counties. We 

 have been assured by intelligent hunters, that their ravages among deer are so great that they 

 destroy five to one killed by man. They follow deer either singly, or in packs of eight or 

 ten, with all the ardor of a pack of hounds, and with a prolonged howl. They usually select 

 a young or injured deer, and trust more to tire him down, than to overtake him by superior 

 speed. In the summer, their prey easily escapes by taking to the water ; but in winter, the 

 same instinct leads to his immediate capture, for on the ice the wolf quickly overtakes him. 

 Towards spring, there is scarcely a lake in the north of the State that has not numerous car- 

 cases of deer on its frozen surface. In most of the counties, bounties varying from ten to 

 twenty dollars per head are offered for the wolf, paid partly by the State, and partly by the 

 county and the township. 



Our wolf is equally voracious and cowardly, flying before man. I have, however, known 

 them, when satiating their hunger over the carcase of a deer, to snarl and snap at the approach 

 of a man, and only to leave their prey reluctantly when he arrived almost within striking 

 distance. 



(EXTRA LIMITAL.) 



Var. a. Dusky Wolf. (Say, Long's Exped. Vol. 1, p. 333. Richardson, pi. 3.) Northern and 



Western Regions. 



Var. b. Pied Wolf. (Richardson, Vol. 1, p. 68.) Arctic Regions. 



Var. c. White Wolf. (Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1, p. 107.) Arctic and Western Regions. 



Var. d. Florida Wolf. (Bartram, p. 199.) 



Var. e. Yellow Wolf. (Lewis & Clark, Vol. 1, p. 40.) Missouri 



Var. f. Prairie Wolf. (Say, Long's Exped. Vol. 1, p. 27 and 162.) Missouri. 



