Jl'OLVES. 497 



tions, owing to the development of a more or less marked grey or red tinge ; while 

 in some cases the fur may be much paler than usual, and in others nearly or quite 

 black. In Europe the light-coloured varieties appear to be characteristic of northern, 

 and the dark of southern regions, black or blackish wolves being not uncommon 

 in Spain. As in Europe there is a black race of the ordinary wolf, so black 

 specimens of the woolly variety occur in Tibet ; these animals having shaggy fur 

 of a uniform black colour, except the muzzle, feet, and patch on the chest, which 

 are white. More uncertainty has prevailed as to whether the Japanese wolf 

 (C. hodophylax) is distinct from the European form ; the Indian wolf is regarded, 

 however, by Mr. Blanford (although not by Professor Mivart) as entitled to rank 

 as a separate species. 



The North American wolf has frequently been regarded as specifically distinct 

 from the European one, under the name of C. occidentalis. Dr. C. H. Merriam 

 has, however, long regarded the two forms as specifically identical, and the same 

 view is taken by Prof. Mivart. The latter writer observes that although the fur 

 of most American wolves is less red than is generally the case with European 

 specimens, especially on the legs and the hinder-part of the head, yet North 

 European examples have a nearly similar coloration. Tiien, again, the American 

 skins generally have more black on the back than most European ones ; but this 

 tendency to blackness is still more marked in Spanish wolves. As in Europe, there 

 is in America trreat individual and racial variation in the colour of the wolf. Thus, 

 according to Mi-. S. F. Baird, there is a pure white wolf on the Upper Missouri, a 

 dusky blackish wolf on the Lower ilissouri, a black wolf in Florida and the 

 Southern United States, and a red wolf in Texas. There is, moreover, considerable 

 difierence in respect of size and shape ; the southern wolves being smaller, more 

 slender, and more " leggy " than those from the extreme north ; while they 

 have also shorter and closer fur. The southern limit of the wolf in America is 

 the State of Guanajuato, in Mexico. Including, then, the whole of the varieties 

 mentioned above, with the exception of the Indian wolf, under a single specific title, 

 the range of the common wolf will be very extensive ; and will embrace the whole 

 of Europe, the greater part of Asia to the northward of the Himalaya, and as far 

 east as Japan, and nearly the whole of North America. 



In Europe tlio wolf has disappeared from Britain and Central and Northern 

 Germany, but still lives in the wilder or more mountainous districts of the rest of 

 the Continent, being especially abundant in many parts of Russia — both European 

 and Asiatic. Wolves were formerly abundant in the British Islands ; in Yorkshire 

 they were common in the reign of Richard II. ; while in the time of Cromwell parts 

 of Ireland were much infested by them. Mr. Harting states that the wolf became 

 extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII. ; that it survived in Scotland 

 until 17-i3; and that the last was killed in Ireland, according to Richard.son, in 

 1770, or, according to Sir J. E. Tennent, subsequently to 1766. 



In America, owing to the rapid spread of cultivation, wolves are disappearing, 

 or becoming scarce in all but the wilder districts. Prof. Mivart, from data supplied 

 him by American naturalists, states that at the present day the wolf is found east 

 of the Mississippi and south of Canada only in the still nearly unsettled parts of 

 the country, as the northern portion of New England and New York, portions of 



VOL. I. — 32 



