226 BIG GAME SHOOTING ; 



Authenticated tales of its ravages among the infant population I 

 are only too common, an old bitch wolf with cubs laid up ; 

 near a village naturally finding Indian baby the most easily ■, 

 procured and most succulent diet for her offspring. Wolves ; 

 have occasionally been ridden down and speared, but only \ 

 when found in the morning, and more or less gorged ; a wolf ] 

 in the evening, when empty, will lope along just ahead of good \ 

 greyhounds till the latter lie down exhausted. They can occa- f 

 sionally be smoked out if their earths are found. Williamson \ 

 describes a big bag made in this way near Allahabad in 1780 ; . 

 the earths were dug out, and at least ten pounds weight of ■ 

 children's ornaments found in them. He also narrates a ghastly i 

 story of the way wolves attacked the starving natives during 

 the famine of 1783 in broad daylight ; as a rule, however, they 

 seldom attack men. 



The next well-known varieties are the grey and black 

 Thibetan wolves {Cams laniger and Canis niger)^ generally J 

 called * Chanko.' These are very destructive to game as well |j 

 as to flocks and herds, as they hunt in small packs. Both grey J 

 and black wolves are found together, and interbreed. The>; 

 black wolf is said to be rather the larger, but it is an open \ 

 question whether the varieties are distinct or not, in spite of "*j 

 the fact of the black specimens Colonel Kinloch presented to^ I 

 the Zoological Gardens only producing black cubs. 



A third variety of ' Chanko,' called the 'golden wolf,' has; ; 

 been mentioned by sportsmen, but this may possibly be the 

 European -^oK (Cams Lupus)^ which extends to Turkestan. 



The chief points of distinction between the three varieties 

 of wolves, i.e. European, Thibetan, and Indian, are as follows : ■ 

 in the European wolf the carnassial tooth is as long as the two | 

 molars together, which is not the case with the others ; it has \ 

 also a dark stripe on the forelegs, which the others have not ; \ 

 and, lastly, the European and Indian wolves have black tips to \ 

 their tails, which the chanko has not. ■ 



The remaining species of vermin is the Wild Dog {Cuon 1 

 rutilans)^ generally called ' Jungh-Kutta ' : in Cashmere ' Ram \\ 



