OF THE DOG TRIBE IN GENERAL. 



IN their native forests, or wilds, the animals which 

 constitute the different species of the present tribe, 

 usually associate in immense packs. These are 

 often so powerful, as to make war with, and over- 

 come, many beasts of prey, which, individually, 

 are much more strong and ferocious than them- 

 selves. Their rapacity exceeds all bounds; and 

 their depredations have, in some instances, proved 

 an almost irreparable injury to the inhabitants of 

 the countries where they dwell. Wretchedness 

 often follows the track of these invaders. Flocks 

 and herds have been swept before them ; and from 

 the attacks of some of stronger and more voracious 

 species, even mankind themselves have not, in all 

 cases, been able to escape. 



Happily for us, the Fox is at present the only 

 predacious animal of the tribe that infests the 

 British dominions; and its attacks, and the mis- 

 chief it commits, are confined, almost exclusively, 

 to poultry, to game, and some of the smaller kinds 

 of quadrupeds. 



Wolves were once inhabitants both of Britain 

 and Ireland ; and, in the early periods, were in such 

 multitudes in Yorkshire, that in the reign of Athel- 



stan, 



