FAUNA AMERICANA. 81 



antelope, deer and hare: they also feed on carrion, 

 which they smell at a great distance ; they are 

 cunning, distrustful, and intelligent, but much less 

 so than the fox. During the winter, when pressed 

 by famine, they unite in troops in order to attack 

 the larger animals. The female enters in heat 

 during the winter, in which state she continues 

 twelve or fifteen days ; she brings forth in the 

 most secret recesses of the forest, after a gestation 

 of sixty-three days, five or six young at a birth, 

 whose eyes are closed, as is the case with dogs. 

 The wolf attains its maturity about the end of the 

 second year, and lives fifteen or twenty years ; its 

 voice is a prolonged howl. The dog is generally 

 its enemy, nevertheless instances are numerous 

 of sexual union between the two species, pro- 

 ducing a prolific hybrid, partaking more of the 

 nature of the wolf than dog. 



Inhabits Europe, southern Africa, North Ame- 

 rica : the race is totally extirpated from England 

 and Ireland. 



Mr. Warden, in his description of the United 

 States, vol. 5. p. 615, says, there is a great variety 

 of wolves in this country, both as regards their 

 size and colour. In the northern states this ani- 

 mal is red or reddish-brown, with a blackish line 

 along the spine, and yellow rays about the ears 

 and on the arms ; in the southern states the wolf 

 is entirely black. 

 In the Missouri country we observe several 



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