THE WOLVERINE. 



481 



lamb-like; while the Wolverine, on another page, is appar- 

 ently sprightly, and ever anxious for a light. 



In fact, all of the well-known names applied to this car- 

 nivorous mammal seem to have originated in misconception 

 and error. The Latin Gulo^ signifying glutton, selected 

 by writers as early as 1550, and still used by modern 

 authors to prevent confusion, gives but a faint idea of the 

 gastronomic feats of the species as related by Old World 

 naturalists, who seemed determined that the animal should 

 do justice to the name they had given it. The repasts 

 of those ancient gentlemen, Milo of Crotona and The- 

 ogenes of Thasos, who could each devour a whole ox in 

 one day, are insignificant affairs as compared with the 

 voracity imputed to the Glutton, which, weighing only 

 thirty pounds, could finish an Elk at one meal, stopping 

 only occasionally to unburden itself by squeezing between 

 two trees. One of these ancient authors, Linnaeus, gave to 

 the "American form of the creature" the name of Ursus 

 luscus, which signifies a Bear with one eye; the foundation 

 for his conclusions being a single unlucky specimen from 

 Hudson's Bay which had lost an eye. 



The wariness, the nocturnal habits, and the exaggerated 

 ferocity of the Timber Wolf, were all ascribed to the Wol- 

 verine at an early day; hence the name. 'At least, a pre- 

 ponderance of evidence favors this view, and agrees in its 

 being a more appropriate name than Glutton. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, who lias written much the best scien- 

 tific article on the Wolverine I have yet seen, is of the 

 o[)inion tluit Carcajou, or Carcajou quincajou, said to have 

 been first applied by Charlevoix to either the Wolverine or 

 some animal of the cat kind, is derived from the Cree 

 Indian word 0-kee-coo-haw-gew, and that Quickhatch, or 

 Qui-qui-hatch, another term familiar to the whites' of Brit- 

 ish America, has the same origin. Richardson and others 

 agree with him. 



The Wolverine belongs to the family Mustelldce^ sub- 

 family Mastelince^ genus Gulo, and is known to the scien- 

 tific world as Oulo luscus — a very absurd name indeed. In 



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