HUNTING AND FISHING OF ANIMALS 1575 



dacity, especially when pressed by hunger in the bad 

 season, is well known. In time of war they follow 

 armies, to attack stragglers and to devour the dead. 

 In Siberia they pursue sledges on the snow with ter- 

 rible perseverance, and the pack is not delayed by 

 the massacre of those who are shot. A few stop to 

 devour at once their fallen comrades, while the others 

 continue the pursuit 



Besides these brutal chases wolves seem able to ex- 

 ercise a genuine feint. Sometimes it is a couple who 

 hunt in concert. If they meet a flock, as they are 

 well aware that the dog will bravely defend the ani- 

 mals intrusted to him, that he is vigilant, and that his 

 keen scent will bring him on them much sooner than 

 the shepherd, it is with him that they first occupy 

 themselves. The two wolves approach secretly; then 

 suddenly one of them unmasks and attracts the at- 

 tention of the dog, who rushes after him with such 

 ardor that he fails to perceive that in the meantime 

 the second thief has seized the sheep and dragged it 

 into the wood. The dog finally renounces his pursuit 

 of the fugitive and returns to his flock. Then the 

 two confederates join each other and share the prey. 

 In other circumstances it is a wolf who hunts with 

 his female. When they wish to obtain possession of 

 a deer, whose robust flight may last a long time, one 

 of the couple, the male, for example, pursues him ' 

 and directs his chase in such a way that the game must 

 pass by a place where the female wolf is concealed. 

 She then takes up the chase while the male reposes. 

 It is an organized system of relays. The strength of 

 the deer becomes necessarily exhausted; he can not 



