SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 645 



Need we wonder that a wolf, fed on blood and garbage, should 

 have attacked any person, whether his master, so called, or 

 another, who had the hardihood to enter his prison under the 

 cloud of night. With respect, again, to the antipathy ad- 

 mitted to exist between the Wolf and the Dog, what reason- 

 able inference can be drawn from the fact with respect to 

 the identity or non-identity of the animals? Dogs them- 

 selves, we know, even of the same litter, will fight with and 

 destroy one another. Is it wonderful that wolves, placed 

 in a state of habitual enmity with animals so different in 

 habits and aspect from themselves, should treat them in 

 the same manner as they would any other prey ; or that the 

 protected dogs should manifest antipathy to so cruel an ene- 

 my I But when wolves are truly domesticated, so far are 

 they from manifesting antipathy to the common dogs, that 

 they attach themselves to them in a remarkable manner, and 

 become their fondest associates. 



The largest and fiercest of the Canidse are commonly 

 termed Wolves ; and there is no other essential distinction 

 between them and the smaller Canidse, into which they pass 

 by gradations. Of the Wolves of Asia, greatly the most 

 diffused seem to be the Common and Black Wolves, and 

 their varieties ; although others, equally entitled to be re- 

 garded as species, may be believed to exist in the vast re- 

 gions of the centre and east, as well as in the numerous 

 Islands of the Eastern Seas. One from these Islands, in- 

 deed, has been for some time known to European naturalists. 

 It is the Cams Javanicus of French naturalists, and is of the 

 size and proportions of the Common Wolf. Of the Wolves 

 of Africa, our knowledge is yet more confined. It is ge- 

 nerally believed, indeed, that the common Wolves of Eu- 

 rope inhabit the mountains of Northern Africa, and even 

 extend to the high lands of Abyssinia on the east. But of 

 the immeasurable deserts of the interior, we know little re- 

 garding the living inhabitants. Travellers, indeed, speak of 

 dangerous wolves found in Senegal and elsewhere ; but they 



