214 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



as the European Wolf is in its range. It shows itself often in winter, 

 notwithstanding the assiduous pursuit of which it is the object. The 

 Japanese state that its flesh is unwholesome. (Temminck, 1844, 

 p. 39.) 



A female wolf from Japan was presented to the Zoological 

 Society of London in 1878 (Flower, 1929, p. 114) . Mivart (1890, 

 p. 15) records a skull in the British Museum from the province of 

 Kotsuke. 



Thomas (1906, p. 342) records a specimen collected in 1904 or 

 1905 in the vicinity of Washikaguchi, Nara Ken, Hondo. The col- 

 lector, M. P. Anderson, adds: "The Wolf was purchased in the flesh, 

 and I can learn but little about it. It is rare, some say almost 

 extinct." 



Aoki (1913, p. 317) gives the range of this animal as "Hondo 

 (Thomas), China." Hatta remarks (1928, p. 1033): "Cam's hodo- 

 phylax T. confined in Japan to the heart of Hondo, Yamato and 

 Wakayama, occurs also in China." These reports from China are 

 considered erroneous. Pocock (1935, p. 658) records a skull from 

 Chichibu. 



Nagamichi Kuroda writes (in litt., July 5, 1938) that many of 

 these wolves were formerly said to be seen in the mountainous dis- 

 tricts of Hondo, but that the animal is now considered completely 

 extinct. It was destroyed because of its injuriousness to men and 

 cattle. It is said that the only specimens in Japan are a mounted 

 male from Fukushima Prefecture, Hondo, which is now preserved 

 in the Tokyo Science Museum, and one or two skulls. 



Kuroda (1938, p. 36) records the animal from the following addi- 

 tional localities in Hondo: Rikuchu, Shimotsuke, and Aomori. 



Yezo Wolf 



CANIS LUPUS HATTAI Kishida 



Cam's lupus hattai Kishida, Lansania, vol. 3, no. 25, p. 73, 1931. (Sapporo, 



Hokkaido, Japan.) 

 SYNONYM: Cants lupus rex Pocock (1935). 



Although extinct in Hokkaido (or Yezo), this wolf survives in 

 Sakhalin and perhaps in the Kuriles. 



It is much larger than Cam's hodophilax of Japan and is dis- 

 tinguished from C. I. lupus of Europe by its larger premolar teeth 

 and by its longer palate and mandible (Pocock, 19356, p. 659). 



In the Amur region, according to Schrenck (1859, pp. 45-48), 

 the wolf is most numerous in northern Sakhalin. Its principal object 

 of chase is the wild Reindeer. Occasionally packs approach the 

 villages or solitary houses of the natives and destroy their dogs. The 

 animal ranges to the south end of Sakhalin and occurs also on the 

 Kuriles. 



