220 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



days of the early explorers they were abundant. With the 

 passing of the buffalo, however, they were poisoned and 

 trapped in such numbers that they rapidly disappeared from 

 their old haunts. They remained abundant up to the time of 

 Wied (1833) and of Audubon (1843), but by 1870 J. A. Allen 

 wrote that in Iowa "although rather common twenty years 

 since, they are now scarce, especially in the more settled dis- 

 tricts." Coues says that in 1873 they did not appear to be 

 numerous in the Dakotas, while by 1887 they were practically 

 gone from most of the country across North Dakota. Bailey 

 states that in 1913 they were numerous enough to be trouble- 

 some in the Badlands along the Little Missouri, though rare 

 elsewhere. A few were reported in 1916 west of Cannon Ball, 

 and in 1922 one was killed near Fargo. At the time of writing, 

 in 1926, Bailey believed there were still a few wolves left in the 

 least-settled parts of the rough Badlands region west of the 

 Missouri. 



Dr. M. W. Lyon, Jr. (1936), records the former abundance of 

 this wolf in Indiana. "About the middle of the last century 

 they were practically exterminated although a few fairly au- 

 thentic records date back as recently as 25 years ago," i. e., 

 about 1911. The pioneer's method of hunting them in the 

 Wabash Valley about 1830 was a sort of round-up, with lines 

 of hunters converging on a central point. Often two to ten 

 wolves would be taken in a day at these hunts, while the bounty 

 provided an added stimulus for their destruction. 



In Kentucky this type of wolf may once have existed, but 

 Funkhauser (1925) believes it doubtful if at the present time 

 any are to be found in the State. On the other hand, it is 

 surprising that in Missouri it still occurs in some numbers. 

 In their recent survey of the game and fur animals of that 

 State, Bennitt and Nagel (1937) believe that on the basis of 

 careful investigation lately made "the maximum density of 

 wolves is about one per 10 square miles and the minimum about 

 one per township (36 square miles)." They estimate the total 

 wolf population of Missouri as in the neighborhood of 3,500 

 wolves, with the maximum concentration in the ten west- 

 central counties south of the Missouri River (a portion may 

 be C. rufus gregoryi). The State paid bounties on 249 wolves 

 between July 1, 1923, and July 1, 1925, but it is likely that a 

 good part of these were for large feral dogs of which there are 



