154 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



or foxes; and all wolves are subject to attacks 

 from parasites and disease. 



Old storybooks are full of tales of wolf fero- 

 city. Wolves pursue the lone horseman, or 

 even attack the occupants of a sleigh. A fiddler 

 returning at night is forced to take refuge on top 

 of a deserted building or in a treetop; or a mail 

 carrier narrowly escapes with his life after losing 

 his sack. All too frequently we still hear 

 stories of wolves attacking a solitary traveller, 

 but careful investigation of these stories shows 

 them to be sheer fabrications. 



The howl of the wolf is deep, while that 

 of the coyote is shrill and high-pitched. It 

 appears that wolves have a language and a 

 system of signalling. These consist of howls, 

 snarls, and barks of varying length, with vary- 

 ing spaces or accents. Wolves prowl and howl 

 mostly at night; but it is not uncommon for 

 them to hunt or to wander in the daytime. 



The gray wolf is known also as the timber 

 wolf. He may be gray, grayish yellow, or 

 grayish black, occasionally reddish; and now 

 and then he verges on cream colour. The colour 

 varies greatly, even among the members of a 

 single and perhaps related pack. 



Formerly the gray wolf was distributed prac- 

 tically over all North America. Though clas- 

 sified into various sub-species, it really was the 



