100 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



Gulo luscus SABINE, Franklin's Journal, 1823 ; RICHAKDSON, FISCHER, 

 GODMAN, Ross, SMITH, DEKAY, GRAY, AUD. and BACH., 

 THOMPSON, BAIRD, BILLINGS, MAXIMILLIAN, GERRARD, 

 COUES, DALL, ALLEN, MERRIMAN ; most recent American 

 authors. 



'Gulo wolverine GRIFFITH. Animal Kingdom, 1827. 



The wolverene is a stout heavy animal about two feet and 

 one- half long, exclusive of the bushy tail, which measures 

 about one foot. The form resembles both that of a bear cub 

 and of a hyena. To the former the resemblance is borne out 

 by the nearly plantigrade walk, while the sloping back and 

 shagginess might suggest the latter, as do its habits. The 

 palms and soles are densely covered with fur, except the small 

 pads. The color is dark brownish black, darkest on the back. 

 The sides are lighter, the color being greyish or yellowish. 

 At the top of the head and in front of the ears is a grey or 

 whitish area, and there are also light spots on the throat as 

 in the martens. 



Dr. Coues has favored us with a full historical account of the 

 animal, from which the following quotations are made: "The 

 written history of the Glutton or Wolverene, dates from an 

 early period in the sixteenth century, when the animal is men- 

 tioned by several writers in much the same extravagant terms. 

 The first appearance of the animal in literature is said by Von 

 Martens to have been in 1532, at the hands of Mechow, a phys- 

 ician of Cracow, in the work De Sarmatia Asiana et Europcea. 

 * * * Endorsed for two centuries by various writers, each 

 more or less authoritative in his own times, and, moreover, 

 appealing strongly to the love of the marvellous, the current 

 fables took strong root and grew apace, flourishing like all 



'ill weeds,' and choking sober accounts the general picture 



impressed upon the susceptible mind of that period being that 

 of a ravenous monster of insatiate voracity, matchless strength 

 and supernatural cunning, a terror to all other beasts, the 



blood-thirsty master of the forest. We read how the 



Glutton, too clumsy and tardy of foot to overtake large rumi- 

 nants, betakes itself to the trees beneath which they may pass, 

 and there crouches in wait for its victim ; it drops like a bolt 

 upon the unsuspecting elk, moose, reindeer, and fastening with 

 claws and teeth, sucks the blood, and destroys them as they 

 run. That nothing may be left undone to ensure success, the 

 animal has the wit to throw down moss or lichens to attract its 

 prey, and to employ the friendly services of foxes to drive the 



