CANIS LUPUS. 11 



We have carefully measured skulls and tcctli of a number of Ameri- 

 can wolves, and compared them with the skulls and teeth of European 

 forms, but could not detect the slightest constant difi'erence between 

 them, any more than between the skins of specimens of the two 

 races. 



In our Plate V. we have had represented what appears to us to be 

 a normal specimen of the American variety, C. occideniaUs. 



The enormous and rapid spread of population and tillage in the 

 United States have greatly restricted the range of this formidable 

 animal ; yet Allen * refers to it as still an inhabitant of Massachusetts 

 a little more than twenty years ago. In 1829 they used to be very 

 numerous on the sandy plains eastward of the Rocky ]\Iountains, 

 where they would hang on the skirts of herds of the Bison, and prey 

 on the sick or on straggling calves. But they would not venture to 

 attack any vigorous full-grown Bison. Hunters informed Mr. Richard- 

 son that they had often seen wolves walking through a herd of bulls 

 without exciting the least alarm amongst them. The hunters vised to 

 rely upon the wary and suspicious nature of the wolf, to preserve the 

 game tluy had obtained. For this purpose it was generally found 

 sufficient to tie a handkerchief, or an inflated bladder, to the branch of 

 a tree. The ferocity of these animals is, however, vouched for by 

 Audubon, who relates an instance of two negroes who, though armed 

 with axes, were set upon while travelling at night, when one, after 

 Hghting as long as he could, saved hmiself by climbing into a tree, 

 while the other was killed and eaten. In spite of its carnivorous, pre- 

 datory habit, this variety sometimes feeds on berries t- 



The American AVolf burrows, and its earths have several outlets, 

 as was observed by Richardson, who saw some of them on the plains 

 of the Saskatchewan, and also on the banks of the Coppermine 

 river. 



In the present day I learn, through the kindness of Dr. Elliott Coues, 



* See his " Mammals of Massachusetts " in Bulletin of the Museum of Comp. 

 Zoology of Harvard Coll. 186;5-G9. 



t See a note by J. C. Hughes in the ' American Naturalist,' vol. xvii. (1883), 



p. 1192. 



c2 



