86 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



the typical form ot the species, and it is as much dreaded by the Japanese 

 as is the hitter by the peasants ot many parts ot Europe. Indeed, so deep- 

 rooted is the fear instilled by this wolt, that even its iiesh is reported to 

 possess poisonous properties. It trequents the more thickly wooded and 

 mountainous districts of the country, where it associates in small bands. 



THE AMERICAN WOLF 



[Caiiis lupus occidcnUiUs) 



(Plate II. Fig. 2) 



In his Mammals of the Adirondack Region, published in 1884, Dr. C. H. 

 Merriam regarded all the American true wolves as inseparable from the 

 European species ; and the same view was subsequently taken by the late 

 Professor Mivart in his Monograph of the Canida. Of late years, however, 

 American naturalists have come to the conclusion that (apart from the 

 coyote) the wolves of their own country are all specifically distinct from 

 those of the Old World. To the present writer, however, they appear to 

 be nothing more than local phases of Canis lupus. And in regard to the 

 present form. Dr. D. G. Elliot, in his recently published Synopsis of the 

 Mammals of North America, remarks that it is only " doubtfully distinct 

 from Canis lupus of the Old World." This admission on the part of an 

 American naturalist suggests that the American wolf has not even the right 

 to be regarded as a race apart from its Old World representative. By 

 some writers the grey wolf, Canis griseus, of Richardson's Fauna Borealis 

 Americana, which inhabits the Arctic and Hudsonian zones ot America, is 

 regarded as a distinct species. And a similar view is otten taken with 

 regard to the so-called red wolf of Texas, the Cams occuientalis, var. rufus, ot 

 Audubon, and Bachman's North American Quadrupeds. Both are, however, 



