38 THE NATURALIST IN NORWAY. 



hunger, it will devour clay. Now, this kind of food 

 cannot be digested, so it remains in the animal's sto- 

 mach for some time, when at last nature interposes, 

 and works off this unnatural article of diet; but the 

 wolf suffers excruciating pain, and howls dismally 

 during the operation. 



Pontoppidan says that by Vandelv, in Sundmor, a 

 farmer once saw a wolf that appeared to be very sick 

 and exhausted; approaching the animal, he struck it 

 on the head and killed it. Being of an inquiring turn 

 of mind, the worthy agriculturist opened the dead 

 wolf to see if he could discover the cause of its ail- 

 ment; when, to his surprise, he found a solid lump of 

 moss and birch-twigs in its stomach, which, being a 

 species of food unfit for a beast of prey, had brought 

 on colic and indigestion. 



Sometimes the Norwegian wolf attacks and devours 

 the dogs which are chained up to guard farms and 

 outbuildings. About ten years ago, during an un- 

 usually severe winter, some wolves attacked and de- 

 voured in one night several dogs that were kept at the 

 Botanical Gardens, Christiania. 



Mr. Lloyd, in his interesting work on the e Scan- 

 dinavian Fauna/ says, "When the wolf is hungry, 

 everything is game that comes to his net. In the 

 Gulf of Bothnia he often preys on seals. When that 

 sea is frozen over, or partially so, as is generally the 

 case soon after the turn of the year, he roams its icy 

 surface in search of the young of the gray seal, which 

 at that season breed amongst the hummocks in great 

 numbers ; and, finding this an easy way of procuring 

 sustenance, he remains on the ice until it breaks up in 

 the spring. It not unfrequently happens, however, 



