CHAPTER V 



THE DOG FAMILY 



THE tribe now treated is called the Dog Family, and 

 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 dependents 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, themselves, 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 Rocky Mountains 

 that the cattle and sheep of the ranch-holders and wild 

 game of the National Yellowstone Park suffer severely. In Switzerland the ancient organisations 

 of wolf clubs in the cantons are still maintained. In Brittany the Grand Louvetier is a govern- 

 ment 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 serv- 

 ant 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 Pales- 

 tine, 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 : " W 7 hen 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 creep- 

 ing up the nullah, we noticed two animals coming across the plain on our left. We took them 

 at first foi leopards, but then saw that they were wolves. When they were about 500 yards from 



84 



hrioiu Hi i>^fiola>lil Photo, Co., Parian') Grein 



A GROWING CUB 



Note hoiv the wolf cub develops the long pasterns t 

 large feet, and long jaw before its body grows in 

 proportion 



