96 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



the region of the forehead, and the smooth and convex form 

 of the triangular process marking the hinder border of the 

 socket for the eye, while the tail is less than half the length of 

 the head and body and is only moderately bushy, the Wolf 

 possesses the following special features. Size large ; fur long 

 and thick, with a woolly under-fur. General colour rufous or 

 yellowish-grey, more or less mingled with black in some 

 specimens ; under-parts whitish ; tail frequently tipped with 

 black ; under-fur of back pale slaty or light brown, with coarse 

 whitish hairs intermingled. Length of head and body, from 3^ 

 to 3^ feet; of tail, 1 8 or 19 inches, inclusive of the hair at the 

 tip. Great individual variation obtains as regards colour, 

 some specimens being much paler than usual, while others are 

 nearly, or quite, black. 



Extinction in Britain. The fate which is impending over the 

 Wild Cat in Britain has long since befallen its canine cousin 

 the Wolf, on which account the latter species, together with the 

 Bear and the Beaver, is generally omitted in works on the 

 Mammals of Britain. If, however, ornithologists are right in 

 including the Great Auk, now totally extinct, and the Caper- 

 cailzie, which, after complete extermination, has been reintro- 

 duced into our islands, in works on British birds, there can be 

 no question as to the claim of the above-mentioned Mammals 

 to a place in the British fauna, since whether the extermination 

 took place forty or four hundred years ago is a matter of no 

 moment. 



Distributed over the greater part of Europe, and ranging 

 eastwards through Asia north of the Himalaya, while the North 

 American form is apparently not specifically distinct, the Wolf, 

 during the Pleistocene period, seems to have occurred over the 

 whole of the British Islands. The earliest horizon in which its 

 remains occur is the so-called "forest-bed" of the Norfolk coast, 

 which belongs to the very earliest portion of the Pleistocene 



