WOLVES — WILD DOG i 39 



occasionally attacks man, while it yearly carries off a number of children from 

 the native villages. 



Like its relatives, the Indian wolf is decidedly clever, and many of the 

 stories told about its cunning are based on fact. Sometimes part of a pack 

 will drive blackbucks or gazelles over some selected place, where the other 

 members of the pack lie in wait hidden in ravines or in their own holes. An eye- 

 witness describes a wolf lying on its back, and stretching its legs into the air in 

 order to excite the curiosity of a herd of antelope. By accident the antelope were 

 disturbed, and then two other wolves suddenly jumped out from where they had 

 been hiding. When attacking a flock of sheep, wolves are said to divide in a 

 similar way, one half keeping the dogs at bay, while the rest carry off the sheep. 

 In this instance it may however be that one half of the wolves are occupied by the 

 dogs defending the flock, while the others raid the sheep without the need of a 

 mutual understanding between the two parties as to their respective duties. The 

 following story is said to be well authenticated. Near a village in central India 

 lived an old she-wolf and a full-grown young male, which used to frequent a 

 certain spot situated on the slope of a hill from where the main road, always 

 crowded with children, descended the hill. The young wolf would hide in bushes 

 between the village and the foot of the hill, while the older animal ascended the 

 hill, waited for a favourable opportunity, and then rushed down and seized a child 

 in the road. This happened many times. At first the inhabitants of the village 

 pursued the wolf, and sometimes succeeded in making it drop its prey, but in such 

 cases the other wolf managed, during the general confusion, to carry off' another 

 child, while the one first taken was so much hurt that it did not recover. In this 

 case, as in many others, superstition prevented the inhabitants of the village from 

 killing the two wolves, and an Englishman who succeeded in ridding them of the 

 pests had the greatest difficulty in finding people to assist him in the task. The 

 chief reason which prevents the natives from killing a wolf in many parts of India 

 is that its blood shed on a field is supposed to make it barren. It is therefore 

 not astonishing that, in spite of pursuit by the natives, wolves are often seen 

 carrying off young goats from villages in broad daylight. 



The Indian wolf brings forth three to eight young in one of the last three 

 months of the year, generally in December, in holes in the ground, or in caves 

 among rocks. The young are born blind, with pendent ears. They are easily 

 tamed, when they behave like domesticated dogs ; and it is possible that the pariah 

 dogs of India are partly descended from the present species, which appears to some- 

 times breed with village-dogs. It is probable that the Indian wolf is the ancestor 

 of some of the European breeds of domesticated dogs. 



The Indian jackal is the widely spread Canis aureus, of which mention is 

 made in another chapter. 



The Indian wild dog (G. sumatrensis deccanensis), which is a 

 local form of a Malay species, occurs in all the larger forests of India 

 but not in Ceylon. It also inhabits Gilgit, Ladak, and parts of the valley of the 

 upper Indus, as well as eastern Tibet and the forest zone of the Himalaya from 

 Kashmir to Assam. In form it more resembles a jackal than a wolf, owing to 

 its short legs. The hair, which in Tibet and the Himalaya has a close, woolly 



-^ 



