CANID^E 549 



Wolf (C. pallipes), which is rather smaller and slighter than 6'. /w////.s, 

 is not found in Ceylon, nor in Burma and Siam. The ordinary 

 colour of the Common Wolf is a yellowish or fulvous gray, but 

 specimens have been met with almost pure white and others entirely 

 black. In northern countries the fur is longer and thicker, and the 

 animal generally larger and more powerful than in the southern por- 

 tion of its range ; this being especially the case with the Tibetan 

 races. The habits of the Wolf are similar everywhere, and it is still, 

 and has been from time immemorial, especially known to man in all 

 the countries it inhabits as the devastator of his flocks of sheep. They 

 do not catch their prey by lying in ambush, or stealing up close to 

 it and making a sudden spring as the Cat tribe do, but by fairly 

 running it down in open chase, which their speed and remarkable 

 endurance enable them to do ; and usually, except during summer, 

 when the young families of cubs are being separately provided for 

 by their parents, they assemble in troops or packs, and by their 

 combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower and kill 

 even such great animals as the American Bison. It is singular that 

 such closely allied species as the Domestic Dog and the Arctic Fox 

 are among the favourite prey of Wolves, and, as is well known, 

 children and even full-grown people are not unfrequently the 

 objects of their attack when pressed by hunger. Notwithstanding 

 the proverbial ferocity of the Wolf in a wild state, many instances 

 are recorded of animals taken when quite young becoming perfectly 

 tame and attached to the person who has brought them up, when 

 they exhibit many of the ways of a Dog. They can, however, 

 rarely be trusted by strangers. 



The history of the Wolf in the British Isles and its gradual 

 extirpation has been thoroughly investigated by Mr. J. E. Harting 

 in his .work on Extinct British Animals, from which the following 

 account is abridged : To judge by the osteological remains which 

 the researches of geologists have brought to light, there was per- 

 haps scarcely a county in England or Wales in which, at one time 

 or another, wolves did not abound, while in Scotland and Ireland 

 they must have been still more numerous. The fossil remains 

 which have been discovered in Britain are not larger than, nor in 

 any way to be distinguished from, those of European wolves of the 

 present day. Wolf-hunting was a favourite pursuit of the ancient 

 Britons as well as of the Anglo-Saxons. In Athelstan's reign these 

 animals abounded to such an extent in Yorkshire that a retreat was 

 built by one Acehorn, at Flixton, near Filey, wherein travellers 

 might seek refuge if attacked by them. As is well known, great 

 efforts were made by King Edgar to reduce the number of wolves 

 in the country, but, notwithstanding the annual tribute of 300 

 skins paid to him during several years by the king of Wales, he 

 was not altogether so successful as has been commonly imagined. 



