CAN1S. 



continent*, thinks that they are not specifically distinct To this last- 

 mentioned opinion Colonel Smith states that his own somewhat 

 extensive researches lead him to subscribe; but he qualifies thii 

 statement by observing that while our ideas respecting the character- 

 istics of specie* remain unsettled the difference of conclusion is 

 perhaps only formular. 



In M. Lesson's ' Manuel ' the following existing Wolves appear aa 

 distinct species : the Common Wolf, U. Lupiu, Linn. ; the Mexican 

 W..lf. C. MuieaiHu, Desm. ; the Rod Wolf, C. j*bat<u, Deem. ; the 

 Prairie Wolf, C. latmu, Hart. ; and the Dusky Wolf, Loup Odorant, 

 C. nubilia, Say. 



Colonel Smith observes that the typical Wolf of Europe and Asia, 

 and the varieties belonging to this tribe in America, may be described 

 as animals occupying the two continents from within the Arctic circle 

 on the north, to Spain, and perhaps to Marocco on the west side of 

 the Old Continent ; to Syria, and beyond the Crishna in India ; and 

 to near the Isthmus of Panama in the New World. Farther south, in 

 the hut-mentioned part of the globe, they are, he remarks, replaced 

 by an aberrant canine, the Red Wolf of Cuvier; and in the first by 

 Hyxnas, the Painted Lycaon (Cani* pictta), and perhaps by other 

 species not aa yet fully developed. "In China," says Colonel Smith, 

 " wolves abound in the province of Xontung [Changtuug ?] ; but how 

 far they are found to the south is not known. Buffon, from the 

 account of Adancon (Adanson), asserts the existence of a powerful 

 race of wolves in the Senegal country, hunting in company with the 

 lion ; but the name is most likely applied to a by ana, a lycaon, or 

 one of the red chrysean group." (' Naturalist's Library.') 



The following must be the passage alluded to : Adanson states 

 that one night a lion and a wolf (loup) entered together in the court 

 of the house where he slept; they raised themselves by turns by 

 placing their feet on the timber-work of the roof (comblc), as he 

 could easily hear, and carried off their provision. In the morning the 

 occupiers of the dwelling were satisfied, from the well-marked 

 impressions of their feet in the sand, that the animals came together, 

 and perceived the place whence they had taken away two fish : doubt- 

 leas, says Adanson, each took his own. This theft, he adds, was 

 moderate for two such carnivorous animals, but they did not choose 

 the smallest " I do not know," continues the French traveller, 

 " that it has been before observed that the wolf goes (fraye) with the 

 lion; nevertheless the fact is not extraordinary; there are daily proofs 

 of it in this country, and every evening the wolf may be heard 

 howling at the side of the lion. I have witnessed the same thing a 

 hundred times in all my voyages on the Niger (the Senegal), and I 

 know, without possibility of doubt, that the wolf is often found with 

 the lion without having anything to fear. It is not that the 

 size of the African wolf, which is much superior to that of the wolf 

 of Europe, makes any impression on the lion ; it is only because the 

 flesh of the former is no temptation to the latter : and what confirms 

 me in this opinion is, that I never saw the two lions which were kept 

 in the middle of the village of Senegal attack the dogs which were 

 exposed to them, or which they met when they were unchained; 

 whereas they fell upon the first horse or child which came in their 

 way." 



Le Vaillant and the French generally called the Spotted Hyaena 

 Loup Tachete' ; and the terms Tigre and Tigresse are used generally 

 for any large spotted cat Thus we have an account of the ' Hardiesse 

 du Tigre' in Adanson' s very next sentence, where he says "Some 

 days alter this visit of the lion with the wolf we received one from 

 a tigress, which came to the same place with her young one and also 

 carried away two fish." In the ' New History of Ethiopia, being a 

 Full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessiuia, vulgarly, 

 though erroneously, called the Empire of Prester John ; in four 

 books : by the learned Job Ludolphus, Author of the Kthiopie 

 Lexicon ; made English by J. P. Gent. Folio, London, 1682,' is 

 the following passage : " Tygers and panthers are much more cruel 

 and fierce than lyons, for they never spare mankind ; yet they covet 

 'hiopians before white men, as more accustomed to that sort of 

 dyet These two beasts differ only in colour ; for the panthers are 

 brown, spotted with black ; the tigers gold-coloured, with fine black 

 spots like five-leaved grass : they are beasts of a dreadful celerity and 

 l...ldnes ; by night they break into villages, and make doleful massa- 

 cres among the poor innocent cattle ; yet Alvarez affirms that these 

 butcheries never happen in Midra-Bahro," It is almost superfluous 

 to add, that the Tiger, properly s.. railed, does not inhabit Africa. 



C. Lujitu, the Common \\ olf, is known by the following characters : 

 It is yellowish or fulvous gray ; hair harsh and strong, longest below 

 the ears and on the neck (particularly the throat), shoulders, and 

 haunches; muzzle black ; cheeks and parts above the eyes oel 

 gray in very old subjects ; upper lip and chin white ; eyes oblique ; 

 tail not curling ; a blackish streak or band on the fore legs about the 

 carpus ; height at the shoulder from 27 to 20 inches. 



Variety white : cither as an ' albino, or according to the French 

 writem, from the effect of the northern climate in the winter. 

 Colonel Smith is of opinion that the whito wolves occurring 

 sometimes among the races of middle Europe are mere cases of 

 albinism. 



This is the wolf that more commonly infests the western countries 

 of Europe. Cuvicr state that it is found from Egypt to Lapland, 



CANI8. 7S 



and seems to have passed over into America. Colonel Smith remarks 

 that the French wolves are generally browner and somewhat smaller 

 than those of Germany ; that the Russian race is longer, and appears 

 more bulky and formidable from the great quantity of long coarse 

 hair on the cheeks, gullet, and neck ; their eyes are very small, aud 

 their whole aspect peculiarly savage and sinister; that the Swedish 

 and Norwegian wolves are similar to the Russian in form, but appear 

 heavier and deeper in the shoulder, lighter in colour than the Russian 

 race, and in winter totally white ; that the Alpine wolves are brownixh- 

 gray and smaller than the French ; those of Italy and to the eastward, 

 towards Turkey fulvous. 



This is the variety, most probably, which formerly lurked in the 

 uncleared woody districts of toe British Islands ; for that Wolves were 

 once numerous here is as clear as that the Bear once prowled in Scot- 

 land and Wales. It would be a waste of paper and space to detail the 

 documentary evidence, and that to be derived from ancient coins, 

 gems, and sculptures, which prove that the Luf.ut of the Roman his- 

 torians and poets, and the Lupa which was fabled to have suckled 

 Romulus and Remus was the same animal with the ancient I 

 Wolf. Whatever the Romans might have done to put down these 

 ferocious but cowardly beasts of prey, they left enough for their Saxon 

 and Norman successors to do. Edgar applied himself to their extir- 

 pation in earnest, enlisting English criminals in the service by com- 

 muting the punishment awarded for their crimes to a delivery of a 

 given number of wolves' tongues, and liberating the Welsh from the 

 payment of the tax of gold and silver on condition of an annual tribute 

 of 300 wolves. But the vast wild tracts and deep forests of ancient 

 Britain were holds too strong even for his vigorous measures. What 

 the numbers and consequent danger had been may be imagined from 

 the necessity that existed in the previous reign of Athelstane (A.D. 925) 

 for a refuge against their attacks. Accordingly a retreat was built at 

 Flixton in Yorkshire, to save travellers from being devoured by these 

 gaunt hunters. The Saxon name for the month of January, Wolf. 

 Moneth, in which dreary season hunger probably made the wolves 

 most desperate, and the term for an outlaw, ' WolfVHed,' implying 

 that he might be killed with as much impunity as a wolf, also indicate 

 the numbers of these destructive beasts, and the hatred and terror 

 which they inspired. 



That Edgar failed in his attempts at extirpation is manifest from a 

 mandamus of Edward I. to all bailiffs, to. to give their assistance to 

 his faithful and beloved Peter Corbet, whom the king had enjoined to 

 take and destroy wolves (lup os ), " cum hominibus, canibus, ct ingeniis 

 suis modis omnibus quibus viderit expedire," in all forests and parks 

 and other places in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, 

 aud Salop, where they could be found. King John, in his grant, quoted 

 by Pennant from Bishop Lyttelton's collection, as being in the pos- 

 session of the dean and chapter of Exeter, mentions the wolf (lupumi 

 among the beasts of chace which the Devonshire men are thereby 

 licensed to kill. 



In Derbyshire certain tenants at Wormhill held their lands by the 

 duty of hunting and taking the wolves ('\Volve Hunt') which har- 

 boured in the county. Even so late as 1577 the flocks of Scotland 

 appear to have suffered from the ravages of wolves, which do not seem 

 to have been rooted out of that portion of the kingdom till about thu 

 year 1680, when Sir Ewen Cameron's hand laid the last wolf low. In 

 Ireland wolves must have lingered as late as the year 1710, about 

 which time the last presentment for killing them in the county of 

 Cork was made. 



The Black Wolf is a name given to a variety which is most frequent 

 in Southern Europe, and particularly in the Pyrenees and to the south 

 of those mountains, where they are more common than the on 1 

 or last-mentioned wolf, which the Black Wolf equals in stature, and. 

 if uny-thing, exceeds in strength. Cuvier says that it is found, but 

 very rarely, in France. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates an anecdote 

 illustrative of its great size and weight One of these wolves at a battue 

 in the mountains near Madrid came bounding towards an English 

 gentleman who was present at the sport, through the high grass and 

 bushes, so large that the sportsman took it for a donkey. Seven were 

 .-lain ; and this gentleman, though active and in the flower of life, 

 could not lift one entirely from the ground. The specimen figured 

 by the Colonel came from the banks of the Tagus, and he describes it. 

 as equal to the largest mastiff, of a very dark brown colour, with ears 

 larger and the muzzle thicker than the Common Wolf, but withal 

 resembling a very large and shaggy Wolf-Dog. 



"The Spanish Wolves," says Colonel Smith, "congregated formerly 

 in the passes of the Pyrenees in large troops, and even now the Lobo 

 will accompany strings of mules as soon as it becomes dusky. They 

 are seen bounding from bush to bush by the side of travellers, and 

 keeping parallel with them as they proceed, waiting an opportunity 

 to select a victim ; and often succeeding unless the muleteers can 

 reach some place of safety before dark, and have no dangerous passes 

 to traverse. Black wolves occur again in the mountains of Friuli and 

 about Cattaro." 



The Vekvoturian Mountain-Wolf of Russia, described by Pallas, 

 belongs to the black variety. Colonel Smith thinks that the Rosso- 

 mak of the Lenas in Siberia, with shining black valuable fur, is pro- 

 bably the same. 



The female of the Common Wolf produces four or five at a litter ; 



