Gray-wolf 779 



The Hon. Theodore Roosevelt gives thus an instance" 

 of a Gray-wolf killing a horse. "With a few savage snaps 

 the Wolf hamstrung and partially disembowelled it." Many 

 similar cases could be cited. 



The strength of its jaws is, doubtless, a cardinal factor in 

 the Wolf's life-problems, not only putting it beyond danger 

 from other carnivora, but also leaving all herbivora at its 

 mercy. 



Doubtless its hold on environment is largely due also to 

 endurance. A Wolf can live on one full meal a week; that is, 

 a dozen meals at equal intervals would carry it through the 

 winter. 



The Wolf that Archbishop Tache tells of" roamed for a 

 month in deep winter, at Isle a la Crosse, with a heavy trap 

 and clog on his hind-foot. It is hard to see how he could have 

 got a meal in all that time, and, though emaciated, he was very 

 lively indeed when found. 



The species is credited by most hunters with cunning 

 enough to hunt by combined drive and ambush, exactly as 

 described in the chapter on the Coyote, but this I have not 

 personally witnessed. 



The Wolf of Ontario is known to be a good swimmer, swim- 



. . MI.N'G 



W. Lewis Fraser once described to me the antics of a family 

 of Gray-wolves that he saw playing in the water like a lot of 

 water spaniels. This was in Muskoka, during the month of 

 September, and they therefore were probably a family. 



The dogs, and especially train-dogs, howl much on moon- social 

 light nights in winter, and in a less degree at other seasons, ments 

 They do not sit around in a circle as has been stated, nor have 

 any accompanying ceremonies been seen. They howl usually 

 when some loud noise or one of themselves begins it. These 

 remarks apply in a measure to Wolves. Unless this nightly 

 chorus belongs to the class, I do not know of any social amuse- 

 ments among these animals. A hint, however, is supplied by 



"Wilderness Hunter, 1S97, P- 394- " See Note i. 



