CHAPTER V 

 THE DOG FAMILY 



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Photo by Sthotttitit Photo. Co. y Parson' i Green 



A GROWING CUB 



Note ho-w the ivolf cub develops the long pasterns, 

 larpc feet, and long jaiu before its body grows in 

 proportion 



IE tribe now treated is called the Dog Family, and 

 rightly so, for our domestic dogs are included in 

 the group, which comprises the Wolves, Dogs, 

 Jackals, Wild Dogs, and Foxes. Their general characters 

 are too familiar to need description, but it should be noted 

 that the foxes differ from the dogs in having contracting 

 pupils to the eye (which in bright sun closes like a cat's 

 to a mere slit), and some power of climbing. 1 he origin 

 of the domestic dog is still unsettled. 



The Woi i 



B 1^ **■« This great enemy of man and his dependents — the 



creature against the ravages of which almost all the early 

 races of Europe had to combine, either in tribes, villages, 

 or principalities, to protect their children, themselves, and 

 their cattle — was formerly found all over the northern 

 hemisphere, both in the Old and New Worlds. In India 

 it is rather smaller, but equally fierce and cunning, though, 

 as there are no long winters, it does not gather in packs. 

 In many lands the popular fear of the wolf has persisted 

 for centuries, a momento of the time when this animal 

 was man's most dreaded enemy. In Switzerland the ancient organisations of wolf clubs in the 

 cantons are still maintained. In Brittany the Grand Louvetier is a government official. Every 

 very hard winter wolves from the Carpathians and Russia move across the frozen rivers of 

 Europe even to the forests of the Ardennes and of Fontainebleau. In Norway they ravage 

 the reindeer herds of the Lapps. Only a few years ago an artist, his wife, and servant were 

 all attacked on their way to Budapest, in Hungary, and the man and his wife killed. The 

 last Brftish wolf was killed in 1680 by Cameron of Lochiel. Wolves are common in Palestine, 

 Persia, and India. 



Without going back over the well-known history of the species, we will give some anecdotes 

 of the less commonly known exploits of these fierce and dangerous brutes. Mr. Kipling's 

 "Jungle Book" has given us an " heroic" picture of the life of the Indian wolves. There is a 

 great deal of truth in it. Even the child-stealing by wolves is very probably a fact, for native 

 opinion is unanimous in crediting it. Babies laid down by their mothers when working in the 

 fields are constantly carried off and devoured by them, and stories of their being spared and 

 suckled by the she-wolves are very numerous. 



Indian wolves hunt in combination, without assembling in large packs. The following is a 

 remarkable instance, recorded by General Douglas Hamilton : " When returning with a friend 

 from a trip to the mountain caves of Ellora, we saw a herd of antelope near a range of low rocky 

 hills ; and as there was a dry nullah, or watercourse, we decided on having a stalk. While creep- 

 ing up the nullah, we noticed two animals coming across the plain on our left. We took them 

 at first for leopards, but then saw that they were wolves. When they w'ere about 500 yards from 



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