140 THE WOLVES. 
blished ; he resumed his good condition of body 
and brilliant coat; his keepers could again approach 
him ; but he would not endure the caresses of any 
other person, and he answered strangers by nothing 
but menaces.* 
In this account, taken from the pen of a dis- 
tinguished naturalist, there is, we may fully believe, 
not the slightest exaggeration of the facts; but the 
inferences to be drawn require, nevertheless, consi- 
derable caution. The wolf was attached, but his 
attachment remained exclusive, and (for in this 
instance it appears that the animal was a male), 
if he had been allowed to go at large and follow 
his master like a dog, it still remains a question 
whether, upon the excitement of instinctive appe- 
tites, he would not have returned to the woods; 
whether, if his master being accompanied by him, 
had been attacked by other wolves, he would have 
fought in his defence; or for pure love, as Buffon 
relates of a hybrid she-wolf, he would not have 
joined in eating his protector. 
Wolves do not acquire their full growth till 
after the end of the second year. Their season of 
heat, in Europe and North America, is late in 
autumn, and the female produces from three to 
seven whelps at a litter. They are brought forth in 
* Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom, by Griffith, vol. ii. p. 342.— 
We have witnessed the most obstreperous fits of joy in a she- | 
wolf at the visits of a young lady, who had never taken other 
interest in the animal than patting her on the head and speak- 
ing to her. This was also at the Jardin du Roi, at Paris. 
