102 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



animals, the habits of the Wolf are well known. He is generally a noc- 

 turnal animal, frequenting forests and overgrown localities generally, 

 wherever such exists, and usually hunts singly or in pairs, except 

 when, under stress of necessity, several, or even a large number, unite to 

 overcome a powerful victim. 



Essentially a cowardly animal, the beast usually prefers to attack prey 

 which is easily overcome, but he is well armed for combat, inflicting a 

 terrible snatching bite, while his speed and endurance in pursuit of prey 

 or escape from enemies are well known. It is very rare, indeed, for a 

 Wolf to be fairly ridden down. 



The Wolf will readily feed on carrion when he finds it conveniently 

 accessible, and he preys not only on Hares, Deer, and such like wild 

 creatures, and on domestic cattle and poultry, but on his fellow-carnivores. 

 The Fox is a frequent victim, and the tame Dog, in spite of such nearness of 

 relationship that the two species sometimes voluntarily cross, is greedily 

 sought for as prey. Indeed, the Wolf is not at all averse to cannibalism 

 when pinched by hunger, as many stories of wolf-hunted sledge-parties 

 testify the devouring by their companions of Wolves that have been 

 shot being a common incident. 



In spite of his cowardice, the Wolf appears to be a more inveterate 

 man-eater than any other animal ; for ages he has been celebrated as the 

 worst foe of children, and many are destroyed by him even at the present 

 day in India, while, when pressed by the rage of hunger in winter, packs 

 will, as is well known, attack adults. Never a severe winter passes with- 

 out lamentable reports in our newspapers of the death of human beings 

 on the Continent at the jaws of these brutes, which in such seasons press 

 westward from their fastnesses in the forests of Eastern Europe, especially 

 Russia. They linger, however, almost all over the Continent, and were not 

 completely exterminated in Britain till a comparatively recent date. In 

 England, it is true, it is supposed to have become extinct in the reign of 

 Henry VII. ; but in Scotland they amounted to a serious plague in the 

 time of the unhappy Queen Mary, and did not become extinct till the 

 end of the seventeenth century at all events. In Ireland they appear to 

 have lingered till perhaps a century later, but in all these cases the exact 



