CHAPTER V. 



THE WOLF.-DESCRIPTION, HABITS AND RAVENOUS CHARACTER, 

 ITS DEPREDATIONS: INCIDENT AT BIDDEFORD. THE PRAIRIE 

 WOLF, ITS HABITAT ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE AND FAILURE 

 DUSKY, AND BLACK WOLF. 



THE WOLF. Description. Head broad, muzzle pointed, 

 eyes small ; ears erect and pointed, tail long, straight and 

 bushy, tipped with black, voice howling, color various, mostly 

 red, sometimes black or gray. 



There is no animal whose character in general estimation 

 is worse than that of the wolf (Canis Lupus}. And yet when 

 we take into account that he is a universal outcast and entirely 

 dependent upon rapine for his subsistence, we cannot blame 

 him for living as he does, since he must either destroy or 

 starve. The carnivorous tribes are evidently designed for 

 the destruction of others, their teeth and claws being given 

 them forthis purpose. On the contrary, herbivorous animals, 

 as the cow and sheep, require no such means of procuring 

 their food, and accordingly are furnished only with teeth for 

 cropping and grinding vegetables. Now although we are 

 bound to protect ourselves from the fangs of the tiger and 

 the cunning of the wolf by the destruction of these animals, 

 yet so far as the animals themselves are concerned, the wolf 

 is no more to blame for killing the sheep than the latter is 

 for plucking the grass, because these are the only means by 

 which the Creator intended these different animals to live. 

 Torturing the wolf therefore for having destroyed the lamb, 

 is no more excusable in us, than punishing the lamb because 

 he happened to pluck some plant which we particularly value. 



This sullen and unpleasant looking animal, the most raven- 

 ous and ferocious that infests the more temperate regions of 



