FIELD BOOK OF MAMMALS 



upperparts; muzzle with light wash of brownish; legs and 

 underparts yellowish white; soles of feet brownish. Indi- 

 viduals may be rusty red instead of grayish. Immature with 

 blackish on muzzle, ears, and tail, but soon taking on gray of 

 adult pelage. 



Measurements. — Males larger than females. Total length, 

 males, 64 inches, females, 56 inches; tail vertebree, males, 16 



Timber Wolf 



inches, females, 12 inches; hind foot, males, 10 inches, 

 females, 10 inches; weight, males, 75-100 pounds average, to 

 150 for exceptional cases; females, 60-80 pounds. 



Geographical Distribution. — All of temperate and Arctic 

 North America except for a small area in the Southwest 

 (California, Nevada, and parts of Oregon, Utah, and Arizona). 

 Exterminated today over part of this range. 



Food. — Carnivorous by preference, feeding on Deer, 

 Moose, Caribou, Pronghorn, domestic stock. Jack Rabbits, 

 Prairie-dogs, and all of the smaller mammals and birds it can 

 catch; carrion; fish; rarely food of a vegetable nature. 



Enemies. — Comparatively none when adult; when young, 

 Eagles. 



Species of the Subgenus Canis 



Gray Wolf; Timber WoU.— Cams nuhilus Say. Plate XIV. 

 As described. Limits of range unknown, but found on the 

 Great Plains of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, the 

 Dakotas, and east to the Great Lakes. 



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