12 CANID^E. 



is bushy, and the hair round the neck is considerably 

 longer than on the rest of the body. It is gregarious, 

 and also very uncertain in its movements, sometimes 

 suddenly deserting a particular district without any 

 apparent cause; or, after having long forsaken the neigh- 

 bourhood, as unexpectedly reappearing, probably to the 

 great loss and terror of some luckless settler's sheep. 



Wild and cunning as the Wolf appears to be in its 

 mature age, it is nevertheless easily tamed if taken 

 young; instances are on record of its associating with 

 common dogs, and learning from them the habit of bark- 

 ing; but its sagacity later in life renders its capture very 

 difficult. Most other animals fearing danger from a trap 

 would cautiously avoid it altogether, but the Wolf, with a 

 perfect discrimination of its exact nature, carefully under- 

 mines it, so as to remove the bait from beneath, unhurt. 

 With set-guns also they have been known to bite off the cord 

 close to the trigger, and then devour the tempting morsel 

 placed in front of the muzzle; and Mr. Ross, H.B.C.S., 

 writing in the " Canadian Naturalist and Geologist," men- 

 tions the fact of a wolf having on more than one occasion 

 hauled up the fishing lines set in a hole cut through the 

 ice, and helped itself to the fish. They are in the habit 

 of following the camps of hunters and Indians for the 

 sake of the scraps and refuse; they also form them- 

 selves into bands, and systematically hunt the deer and 



