CHAPTER V. 



THE DOG FAMILY. 



rTIHE tribe now treated is called the Dog Family, and 5 

 j rightly so, for our domestic dogs are included 

 in the group, which comprises the "Wolves, Dogs, 

 Jackals, Wild Dogs, and Foxes. Their general characters 

 are too familiar to need description, but it should be noted 

 that the foxes differ from the dogs in having contracting 

 pupils to the eye (which in bright sun closes like a cat's 

 to a mere slit) and some power of climbing. The origin 

 of the domestic dog is still unsettled. 



THE WOLF. 



This great enemy of man and his dependants the 

 creature against the ravages of which almost all the 

 early races of Europe had to combine, either in tribes, 

 villages, or principalities, to protect their children, them- 

 selves, and their cattle was formerly found all over the 

 northern hemisphere, both in the Old and New Worlds. 

 In India it is rather smaller, but equally fierce and 

 cunning, though, as there are no long winters, it does 

 not gather in packs. It is still so common in parts of 

 the Eocky Mountains that the cattle and sheep of the 

 ranch-holders and wild game of the National Yellow- 

 stone Park suffer severely. In Switzerland the ancient 



organisations of wolf clubs in the cantons are still maintained. In Brittany the Grand 

 Louvetier is a government official. Every very hard winter wolves from the Carpathians and 

 Russia move across the frozen rivers of Europe even to the forests of the Ardennes and of 

 Fontainebleau. In Norway they ravage the reindeer herds of the Lapps. Only a few years 

 ago an artist, his wife, and servant were all attacked on their way to Budapest, in Hungary, 

 and the man and his wife killed. The last British wolf was killed in 1680 by Cameron of 

 Lochiel. Wolves are common in Palestine, Persia, and India. 



Without going back over the well-known history of the species, we will give some anecdotes 

 of the less commonly known exploits of these fierce and dangerous brutes. Mr. Kipling's 

 " Jungle Book " has given us an " heroic " picture of the life of the Indian wolves. There is 

 a great deal of truth in it. Even the child-stealing by wolves is very probably a fact, for native 

 opinion is unanimous in crediting it. Babies laid down by their mothers when working in the 

 fields are constantly carried off and devoured by them, and stories of their being spared and 

 suckled by the she-wolves are very numerous. 



Indian wolves hunt in combination, without assembling in large packs. The following is a 

 remarkable instance, recorded by General Douglas Hamilton : " When returning with a friend 

 from a trip to the mountain caves of Ellora, we saw a herd of antelope near a range of low 

 rocky hills; and as there was a dry nullah, or watercourse, we decided on having a stalk. 

 While creeping up the nullah, we noticed two animals coming across the plain on our left. 

 We took them at first for leopards, but then saw that they were wolves. When they were 



84 



Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green. 

 A GROWING CUB. 



Note how the wolf cub develops the long pasterns, 

 large feet, and long jaw before its body grows in pro- 

 portion. 



