922 The Zoologist — October, 1867. 



Beast-epic of " Reineke Fuchs," where bis greed and credulity con- 

 stantly render him an easy prey to his rival Reynard. But in Scandi- 

 navian story " graa-been " (gray-legs), as he is called, bears a better 

 name ; he is grateful for kindness and is gifted with supernatural know- 

 ledge (Dasenl, ' Norse Tales '). One source of the horror and detesta- 

 tion so generally felt towards this animal was doubtless the ghastly 

 superstition of the were-wolf or loup-garou, widely spread in the 

 middle ages, and tracing back into the mists of antiquity. Generally 

 it was by his own wicked craft that the man assumed the form of the 

 beast, often by means of an enchanted belt of wolfskin ; but some- 

 times he was an innocent person condemned to this transformation by 

 a sorcerer, who struck him with a magic glove of the same material 

 (Zool. S. S. 883). Nor was this change confined to individuals ; it was 

 believed to be possessed by whole tribes and nations : thus Herodotus 

 and other ancient writers relate that a Slavonic race, the Neurians, 

 all changed into wolves for a few days every year. It is to this, pro- 

 bably, that Isaac Walton alludes when he bids us "note that Doctor 

 Mer. Casaubon affirms, in his book of credible and incredible things, 

 that one Caspar Peucerus, a learned physician, tells us of a people 

 that once a year lurn wolves, partly in shape, and partly in conditions." 

 In this country the wolf appears to be generally forgotten in popular 

 story. The last Scotch wolf is generally said to have been slain by 

 the famous Cameron of Lochiel in 1680, but Highland tradition relates 

 that the species lingered in the Forest of Tarnaway much later, and 

 the last is said to have been killed by a celebrated deer-stalker, named 

 McQueen, of Pall-a'-chiocain, about the year 1743. (Stuart, ' Lays of 

 the Deer Forest.'') 



Fox. — According to Simrock the fox was one of the beasts which 

 were sacred to Thor, a dignity which he owed to his colour being 

 similar to the hue of the Thunderer's beard. He has always been a 

 favourite subject of traditionary lore; from the lime of iEsop to the 

 present day he has been the hero of a hundred stories, in which, hero- 

 like, he is always successful. To enumerate many of these legends 

 would be very tedious, but I may mention, as an example, the Norse 

 explanation of the white " tag" of his brush. Reynard persuaded an 

 old woman to engage him as her herdsman ; of course he made short 

 work of his charge, and finished off with a raid on her dairy ; where- 

 upon the dame, in her wrath, threw after him what little cream he had 

 left, and some of it lighting on his brush he has borne a white tip 

 ever since (Dase/tt). But by far the most important of all these tales, 



