THE WOLF 151 



The Cape Hunting Dog, or Wild Dog of Africa 

 (Plate XIII. Fig. i), represents a distinct genus, for it 

 has only four toes on each of its feet, and is spotted 

 something like the hyaena. Hunting in packs, it is the 

 scourge of the continent, and in particular it lays a heavy 

 toll upon the antelope family. In the neighbourhood of 

 settlements these organised marauders will kill cattle and 

 sheep. Dashing into a herd near a house, the Dogs will 

 select an animal and drive it away over the nearest rising 

 ground. Once over the ridge, they kill it and pick its bones 

 before a horse can be saddled and some one come to the 

 rescue. 



The Dingo (Plate XIII. Fig. 2) was at one time 

 extremely numerous throughout Australia and New Zea- 

 land ; in the former it is getting rare, and in the latter 

 it has been exterminated. The early colonists suffered 

 immense loss from the raids of the Dingo, which, some- 

 thing like the fox in its life and habits, would play havoc 

 with the sheep and poultry. The animal is interesting as 

 being one of the few Australian mammals outside the 

 Marsupial group ; and no end of discussion has waged 

 around the question whether it is really an indigenous 

 animal or a descendant of some of the Dogs of Asia, intro- 

 duced into the island long ages ago. 



It is a point worth noting, as bearing upon the probable 

 origin of the domesticated Dog, that the various wild 

 species are easily tamed when caught young, and that the 

 domesticated and the wild animals often breed with each 

 other. A wolf and a dog or a jackal and a dog will mate 

 together, but a fox and a dog never. 



WOLF (Cants lupus}. 

 Coloured Plate VII. Fig. 3. 



Different species of Wolves rank next to the bears as 

 formidable beasts of prey in the northern parts of both 

 the Old and the New World. The European Wolf is 

 coated with thick, coarse, yellowish-grey hair. Standing 

 about two feet high, it measures over four feet from the 



