NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 217 



persecution is to be regretted, for they form a perfectly natural 

 and normal check on other species." In this last statement is 

 to be found the key to the preservation of the species in regions 

 where it comes in contact with white men. Under the nearly 

 natural conditions of a large national preserve for game, wolves 

 in these northern regions will be useful in preventing too great 

 an increase of deer, and to a less extent of moose, which in the 

 absence of such natural predators may easily become unduly 

 abundant to the impairment of their range as in the case of the 

 Kaibab deer or those of the Murderers Creek Game Refuge in 

 eastern Oregon. Even in such situations, however, the game 

 ranger has a special problem in determining how many wolves 

 may safely be allowed on refuge areas, and how best this num- 

 ber may be maintained through occasional destruction of 

 young or of adults that become too bold or range outside the 

 preserve to kill cattle or sheep in adjacent districts. 



MOGOLLON MOUNTAIN WOLF 

 CANIS LUPUS MOGOLLONENSIS Goldman 



Canis lupus mogollonensis Goldman, Jouri?. Mamm., vol. 18, p. 43, Feb., 1937 ("S. A. 

 Creek, 10 miles southwest of Luna, Catron County, New Mexico"). 



This is a "rather small, usually dark-colored subspecies. 

 Similar in general to Canis lupus youngi of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region . . . but smaller and usually darker in color. 

 Decidedly larger and usually lighter in color than Canis lupus 

 bailey i of the Sierra Madre of Mexico. Closely allied to Canis 

 lupus monslrabilis of Texas, but smaller" and the skull with 

 "zygomata more widely spreading; frontal region less elevated 

 and inflated; auditory bullae smaller." 



The distribution of this form is said by Goldman to include 

 the Mogollon Plateau region of central Arizona, extending 

 eastward through the Mogollon Mountains to the Sacramento 

 Mountains of New Mexico, and though rather circumscribed 

 this seems nevertheless to be well borne out by a series of 120 

 specimens studied by its describer. Vernon Bailey (1931) 

 writes that "in 1908 he was again over the Gila National Forest 

 and Mogollon Mountain region and found the wolves still 

 common." They were feeding on nothing but fresh meat of 

 their own killing, for "stock was abundant, and they had no 

 trouble in finding cattle of any age or condition they preferred, 



