OEDER V. TUE CARNIVORA. 95 



halting from the district where he has been himtcil, taking a direct line for 

 some favorite cover, perhaps forty miles or more in distance. On these 

 occasions he will leap over walls above eight feet high, cross rivers obliquely 

 with the current, even if it be as broad as the IJhine, and never oiler battle 

 unless he be fairly turned ; then he will endeavor to cripple tiie opponent by 

 hasty snaps at the fore legs, and resume his route. The track of a wolf is 

 readily distinguished from that of a dog by the two middle claws being close 

 together, while in the dog they are separated; the uKirks, however, wlien the 

 wolf is at speed, and the middle toes are separated, can be determined by 

 the claws being deeper, and the impression more hairy ; the print is also 

 longer and narrower, and the ball of the foot more prominent. 



Inferior in wily resources to the fox, the wolf is nevertheless endowed 

 with great sagacity. His powers of scent are very delicate, his hearing 

 acute, and his habits always cautious. The European variety is naturally a 

 beast of the woods ; those of the arctic regions and of the steppes of IJussia 

 and Tartary ha\e different manners, probably from necessity, not choice. 

 It is said that the burrows of wolves are originally the work of other species, 

 such as bears, badgers, wolverines, jackals, and foxes. They only fit tlicm 

 for their own use ; and when they burrow, it is always in communities, so 

 that not even bears can dislodge them. In France and Southern Germany 

 they now retreat under fallen leaves, in the hollows under large and old 

 roots, in eaves, clefts of rocks, or overhanging banks, but always in the 

 most secluded and dense covers. AVe have seen a wolt"s den in Canada, 

 in a hollow tree accessible between some high roots. 



In well-inhabited countries, where wolves are an oljject of constant per- 

 secution, they never quit cover to windward ; they trot along its edges until 

 the wind of the open country conies towards them, and they can be assured 

 by their scent that no suspicious object is in that quarter; tlien they ad- 

 vance, snuffing the coming vapors, and kre[) as much as possil)lc along 

 hedges and brushwood to avoid detection, j)ushing forward in a single foray 

 to the distance of many miles. If there be several, they keep in file, and 

 step so nearly in each other's track, that in soft ground it would seem tiiat 

 only one had passed. They bound across narrow roads without leaving a 

 footprint, or follow them on the outside. These movements arc seldom 

 begun before dusk or protracted beyond daybreak. If single, the wolf will 

 visit outhouses, enter the farmyard, first stt)pping, listening, snuffing up the 

 air, smelling the ground, and springing over the threshold without touching- 

 it. When he retreats, his head is low, turned obliquely \\ itli one ear for- 

 ward, the other back, his eyes burning like flame. lie trots crouching, his 

 brush obliterating the track of his feet, till at a distance from the scene of 

 de^jredation ; when, going more freely, he continues his route to cover, and 

 as he enters it, first raises his tail and flings it up in triumph. 



