CHAPTER XIV. 



WOLVES. 



"E wolf, as being univerfally dif- 

 tributed, is fo well known that a 

 large body of curious learning has 

 grown up with it. Its tail is ftraight; 

 which feems to eftablifh a ftructural difference 

 between it and the numerous varieties of the dog. 

 Yet naturalifts, fuch as the late Mr. Bell, have 

 derived all dogs from the wolf, although Linnaeus 

 defcribes the former animal as "cauda finiftrorfum 

 recurvata." The Old World wolves are probably 

 not fpecifically different from thofe of the New. 

 They are found all over the Continent, and range 

 from Egypt to Lapland. The jackal, a near 

 congener, appears only in Eaftern Europe, while a 

 variety known as the black wolf (C. Lycaori) is 

 found in the Vofges Mountains, in the Alps, and 

 the Pyrenees. As for the derivation of the word 

 " wolf," its " fuggefted connection with Lat. 

 ' vulpes/ a fox, is not generally accepted." 1 The 

 1 Skeat, Dictionary." 



