Common Wolf 83 



Mr. Osgood, in his report on the mammals of the Yukon district, 

 published in No. 19 of the North American Fauna (1900), says that 

 lynxes are by no means so common in the interior of Alaska as might 

 have been expected. He himself saw no signs of these animals, and 

 could obtain but little evidence of their presence. 



THE COMMON WOLF 



{Llanis lupus) 



The wolf being one of the animals mentioned in Great and Small Game 

 of India ^ etc.^ may be passed over, so far as its typical European representa- 

 tive is concerned, in the present volume with a brief notice. It is the 

 largest representative ot the Canid(V found in northern latitudes, the skull 

 generally exceeding ^\ inches in length, and the length of the head and 

 body varying between 3 and 3^ feet. The limbs are elongated, under-fur 

 is present, and there is a black mark down the front of each fore-leg. The 

 number of teeth is the same as in the dog. 



The typical representative of the species is the wolf of Scandinavia, 

 since the name Canis lupus of LinnjEus applies primarily to the form found 

 in his own country. In the wolves of this area and the neighbouring 

 countries of North -Western Europe the general colour of the upper 

 parts of the body and head and of the outer surflice of the limbs is some 

 shade of rufous or tawny grey, with a considerable mixture of black in some 

 specimens ; the under-parts and the inner side ot the limbs being whitish. 

 Old individuals tend to become greyer. On the back the colour of the 

 under-fur is light brown or pale slaty grey, with an admixture ot coarser 

 whitish hairs ; the longer hairs are usually brown with black tips, although 

 they may be white at the extremities. The tail, which, inclusive ot the 



