The Wolf 343 



the most harmless to beasts, and the least dangerous to 

 man." 



A wolf's structure is not by any means so well adapted 

 to destructive purposes as that of the larger FclidcE. No 

 species of the genus Canis has either the teeth, claws or 

 muscles which belong to cats. A predatory animal may, 

 and often does, make an error in judgment, but there is 

 one thing that it never does, and that is, to attack deliber- 

 ately knowing beforehand that it must fight fairly for 

 victory, and that the issue is quite as likely to be fatal 

 to itself as to its destined prey. A single wolf is not a 

 match for those large animals it destroys ; and when, in 

 virtue of what Professor Romanes calls the "collective 

 instinct," odds have been taken against them, they suc- 

 cumb before a combined assault. 



Where parties of "wolfers," as they are called, pass the 

 winter in placing poisoned meat in their way, and in local- 

 ities in which they abound, destroy them for their skins 

 by hundreds, wolves would need to be much less sagacious 

 than they are, if what was noticed by Lord Milton and his 

 companion was not true as a matter of course. " These 

 animals," the account says, " are so wary and suspicious 

 that they will not touch a bait lying exposed, or one that 

 has been recently visited." John Mortimer Murphy 

 (" Sporting Adventures in the Far West ") had seven 

 years' experience of the way in which wolves were shot, 

 trapped, poisoned and coursed. The conclusion he came 

 to from those observations which he relates so well, was 

 that the wolf in such localities, " large, gaunt, and fierce as 

 it looks, is one of the greatest cowards known." He 



