THE CLOUDED BLACK WOLF. 95 
which is of considerable length, especially along the 
middle of the back and shoulders, where it forms a sort 
of indistinct and scattered mane, is mottled with various 
shades of black, gray, and white, giving to the whole 
animal that dark and clouded colour which constitutes — 
one of its most peculiar and striking characteristics. The 
colouring, which, on the upper parts of the body, is deep 
black, becomes somewhat lighter on the sides, and assumes 
a yet lighter shade beneath: the chin and angles of the 
mouth are nearly white; the gray tinge predominating 
over the darker shades in various other parts, but by no 
means in so regular a manner as to merit a particular 
description. The ears are remarkably short; and the 
tail is also somewhat shorter in proportion than that of 
the common wolf, not reaching, in its solid form, beneath 
the posterior bend (which in all these animals is formed 
by the heel) of the hind legs. 
The animals a. present in the Tower, the only indi- 
viduals of this species that have been brought alive to 
Kurope, were presented about four years since by the 
Hudson’s Bay Company, by some of whose hunters they 
had been trapped in the northern regions of America. A 
fine skin of the same species was brought home by the 
late overland expedition to those countries, under the 
command of Captain Franklin, and presented to the 
Museum of the Zoological Society. There is also another 
instance of its occurrence recorded in the capture of a 
solitary specimen, in the Missouri territory, by the party 
engaged in Major Long’s expedition from Pittsburgh to 
the Rocky Mountains. This specimen was accurately 
described, in the notes to the published narrative of that 
expedition, by Mr. Say, who at once recognised it as a 
