PIG-TAILS IN REQUEST. 463 



fine female wolf, in my possession, as a pointer ; but I was 

 deterred, owing to the penchant she exhibited for the neigh- 

 bours' pigs. She was chained in a little enclosure, just in 

 front of my window, into which those animals, when the 

 gate happened to be left open, occasionally found their 

 way. The devices the wolf employed to get them in her 

 power were very amusing. When she saw a pig in the 

 vicinity of her kennel, she, evidently with the purpose of 

 putting him off his guard, would throw herself on her side 

 or back, wag her tail most lovingly, and look innocence 

 personified. And this amiable demeanour would continue, 

 until the grunter was beguiled within the length of her 

 tether, when, in the twinkling of an eye, "Richard was 

 himself again." 



Whilst young, her charges were invariably directed at the 

 rear of the animal ; and if she got hold of the tail, it was 

 always taken off as clean as a cook would slice a carrot. 

 Several pigs were under my own eye thus mutilated. When 

 full-grown, however, she was not altogether satisfied with 

 this fraction of a pig ; and if one of a small size approached 

 her too near, she would pitch bodily upon it, and seizing 

 it crosswise in her mouth, as far as the length of her 

 chain admitted, walk backwards and forwards with it in 

 front of her kennel. The squeaks of the sufferer were, on 

 these occasions awfully piercing, and I have had difficulty 

 in relieving them from durance. And no wonder, if the 

 jaws of the wolf, as I have heard asserted, possess such 

 power as to enable his teeth to penetrate a thin plate of 

 iron. 



Though wolves are so numerous in Scandinavia, and 

 commit such considerable ravages amongst cattle, they do 



