﻿NO. 15 LARGE WOLVES OF NORTH AMERICA — MILLER 3 



naturalists have, indeed, described some of the northern kinds of Wolf as dis- 

 tinct; but it never seems to have been doubted that a Wolf, possessing all the 

 characters of the European Wolf, exists within the limits of the United States. 

 The wolf to which these characters have been ascribed, seems to be the 

 " large brown Wolf " of Lewis and Clark, and, according to them, inhabits not 

 only the Atlantic countries, but also the borders of the Pacific and the 

 mountains which approach the Columbia River, between the Great Falls and 

 rapids, but is not found on the Missouri to the westward of the Platte. I 

 have seen none of these Brown Wolves; but if their resemblance is so close 

 to the European Wolf as Major Smith states it to be, I have no hesitation in 

 saying that they differ decidedly from the Wolf which inhabits the countries 



north of Canada I have, therefore, in the present state of our knowledge, 



considered it unadvisable to designate the northern Wolf of America by a dis- 

 tinct specific appellation, lest I should unnecessarily add to the list of syno- 

 nyms, which have already overburthened the science of Zoology. The word 

 occidentalis, which I have affixed to the Linnsean name of Canis lupus, is to be 

 considered as. merely marking the geographical position of the peculiar race of 

 Wolf which forms the subject of this article. I have avoided adopting, as a 

 specific name, any of the appellations founded on color, because they could not 

 with propriety be used to denote more than casual varieties of a species, in 

 which the individuals show such a variety in their markings. 



In a later article (Rep. Brit. Asso. Adv. Sci., Vol. 5, pp. 145-146, 

 1837) Richardson says: " The Lupus occidentalis travels northward 

 to the islands of the Arctic Sea, but its southern range cannot be 

 defined until its identity with the common wolf of the United States 

 be proved or disproved." It is evident from this that the name was 

 intended to apply to the Canadian wolves met with by the author. 

 Richardson visited parts of the ranges of all three types of northern 

 wolves (see Preble, North Amer. Fauna, No. 27, pp. 57-60, October 

 26, 1908) . There is nothing in his first account or in his subsequent 

 allusions to the animal, that can be used to gain further insight of 

 his intention, or to allocate the name artificially. The application of 

 the name must, therefore, be determined by subsequent revision. Up 

 to the present time, however, no one has in a technical sense acted 

 as reviser; the name has merely been applied to various animals, 

 frequently unknown at first-hand to Richardson, and without definite 

 knowledge on the part of the persons so using it of the three types 

 of central Canadian wolves. 1 



1 As examples of such applications may be cited : to Canis lycaon by DeKay 

 in 1842 (Nat. Hist. New York, Vol. 1, p. 42) ; to a combination of C. gigas 

 and C. lycaon by Peale in 1848 (U. S. Expl. Exped., Vol. 8, p. 26) ; to C. 

 nubilus by Townsend in 1850 (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, N. S., Vol. 

 2, pp. 77-79) ; to a probable combination of C. lycaon and C. tundrarum by 

 Bangs in 1898 (Amer. Nat., Vol. 32, p. 505, July, 1898) ; to the timber-wolf of 

 the northern interior region by Preble in 1908 (North Amer. Fauna, No. 27, 

 p. 211, October 26. 1908). 



