756 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



companions strolled out on the ice of the lake to look at the 

 logs there. They heard the hunting cry of Wolves, then a 

 Deer (a female) darted from the woods to the open ice. Her 

 sides were heaving, her tongue out, and her legs cut with the 

 slight crust on the snow. Evidently she was hard pressed. 

 She was coming towards them, but one of the men gave a 

 shout which caused her to sheer off. A minute later six 

 Timber-wolves appeared galloping on her trail, heads low, 

 tails horizontal, and howling continuously. They were utter- 

 ing their hunting cry, but as soon as they saw the Deer they 

 broke into a louder, different note, left the trail, and made 

 straight for her. Five of the Wolves were abreast and one that 

 seemed much darker was behind. Within half a mile they 

 overtook her and pulled her down, all seemed to seize her at 

 once. For a few moments she bleated like a sheep in distress; 

 after that the only sound was the snarling and crunching of the 

 Wolves as they feasted. Within fifteen minutes nothing was 

 left of the Deer but hair and some of the larger bones, and the 

 Wolves fighting among themselves for even these. Then they 

 scattered, each going a quarter of a mile or so, no two in the 

 same direction, and those that remained in view curled up there 

 on the open lake to sleep. This happened about ten o'clock in 

 the morning within three hundred yards of several witnesses. 



MATING The mating season of Gray-wolves begins about the last 



week of January and may last into the first week of March, 

 differing according to the region; the colder it is, the later. 



PAIRING Does the Gray-wolf pair ? This is so important in the 



natural history of monogamy that I give evidence at length. 



Ordinary dogs, we know, are promiscuous, but domes- 

 ticity is notoriously bad for the morals of animals; here, there- 

 fore, the argument of analogy would be unsafe. Dr. Woods 

 Hutchinson, in an important article on "Animal Marriage,"* 

 points out the promiscuity of the dog as anomalous and main- 

 tains the superiority of monogamy as an institution. "A 



* Contcmporarj' Review, October, IQ04. 



