144 MAMMALIA-WOLF. 



three years for their growth, and live to the age of fifteen or twenty years. 

 The hody of the wolf is about three and a half feet long. 



The wolf grows gray as he grows old, and his teeth wear, like those of 

 most other animals, by using. He sleeps when his belly is full, or when 

 he is fatigued, rather by day than night, and is always very easily waked. 

 He drinks frequently ; and in times of drought, when there is no water to 

 be found in the trunks of trees, or in pools about the forest, he comes often, 

 in the day, down to brooks or lakes in the plain. Although very voracious, 

 he yet supports hunger for a long time, and often lives four or five days 

 without food, provided he is supplied with water. 



The wolf has great strength, particularly in his fore parts, in the muscles 

 of his neck and jaws. He carries off a sheep in his mouth, without letting 

 it touch the ground, and runs with it much swifter than the shepherds who 

 pursue him, so that nothing but the dogs can overtake him, or oblige him 

 to quite his prey. He bites cruelly, and always with greater vehemence in 

 proportion as he is less resisted ; for he uses precautions with such animals 

 as attempt to stand upon the defensive. He is cowardly, and never fights 

 but when under the necessity of satisfying his hunger, or of making good 

 his retreat. When he is wounded by a bullet, he is heard to cry out ; and 

 yet, when surrounded by the peasants, and attacked with clubs, he never 

 howls, but defends himself in silence, and dies as hard as he lived. 



If he happens to be caught in a pit-fall, he is for some time so frightened 

 and astonished, that he may be killed without offering to resist, or taken 

 alive without much danger. At that instant, one may clap a collar round 

 his neck, muzzle him, and drag him along, without his even giving the 

 least signs of anger or resentment. At all other times, he has his senses 

 in great perfection. He smells a carcass at the distance of more than a 

 league ; he also perceives living animals a great Avay off, and follows them 

 a long time upon the scent. Whenever he leaves the wood, he always 

 takes CRre to go out against the wind. When just come to its extremity, 

 he stops to examine, by its smell, on all sides, the emanations that may 

 come either from his enemy or his prey, which he very nicely distinguishes. 

 He prefers those animals which he himself kills to those he finds dead ; and 

 yet he does not disdain these, though ever so much infected, when no better 

 are to be had. He is particularly fond of human flesh ; and, perhaps, if he 

 were sufficiently powerful, he would eat no other. Wolves have been seen 

 following armies, and arriving in numbers upon the field of battle, where 

 they devoured such dead bodies as were left upon the field, or but negligently 

 interred. These, when once accustomed to human flesh, ever after seek 

 particularly to attack mankind, choose to fall upon the shepheid rather than 

 his flock, and devour women, carry off their children, &c. 



The color of this animal differs according to the different climates in 

 which he is bred, and often changes even in the same country. Besides the 

 common wolves which are found in France and Germany, there are others 



