682 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



of all the countries around the north pole, an animal which like many 

 other boreal forms, turns white in winter. 



The differences between dogs and wolves are but slight; both are 

 placed in the same genus, and it is more a question of nomenclature than 

 of structure, as to whether any species be regarded as a dog or a wolf. 

 Indeed, it is highly probable that there is much wolf blood in some of the 

 breeds of domestic dogs, together with that of jackals and foxes. The true 

 wolf, found both in Europe and America, is the most formidable of the lot, 



7jecfTw£wru 



Fig. 524. — Wolf {Canis lupus). 



and the only form that is dangerous to man. It is now exterminated in 

 most of western Europe ; but vast packs still remain in the forests of 

 Russia. A single wolf is a cowardly creature ; but in a pack they are the 

 personification of ferocity, and tales abound of people being chased by these 

 animals. Wolves have from time immemorial been the subject of super- 

 stition. The belief in were-wolves — persons capable of turning them- 

 selves int<» wolves at pleasure, and satisfying their appetites with human 

 flesh — are well known, and in the same line is the following : — 



"In Arcadia there was a certain race and house of the Antaei, out of 

 which one ever more must of neeessitie be transformed into a wolfe ; and 



