325 
$e 
CANIS LUPUS GRISEO-ALBUS, (Linn) (SABINE). 
THE WOLF. 
Specific Character—The three first teeth in the upper jaw and the four in 
the lower jaw, are trenchant but small, and are called false molars. The great car- 
nivorous tooth is bicuspid with a smaller tubercle on the inner side; that below 
has the posterior lobe altogether tubercular. There are two tuberculous teeth 
behind each of the great carnivorous teeth. The muzzle is elongate, tongue soft, 
ears erect, but in the domestic varieties sometimes feridulous. The forefeet are 
pentadactylous or five-toed, the hind feet are tetradactylous or four-toed. The 
teats are both inguinal and ventral. 
Habitat.—North America, common in Northern Ontario. 
Average Size-—Equal to a large setter dog. 
Average Werght.—50 to 75 pounds. 
Average Height—At shoulder, 26 inches. 
Average Length—From tip of nose to point of tail, 5 feet; nose to tail, 48 
inches ; tail, 12 inches. 
Value of Fur.—Per skin, average, 50c. to $2. 
The wolf is well known in Ontario, especially in its northern portions, and is 
cordially detested wherever found. 
. He is a noxious animal, the type of all detestable qualities, and courage is 
____ absolutely foreign to his nature. Unless accompanied by a pack of his cowardly 
fellows, the wolf will never attack an animal larger than himself, and he will flee 
____ like the wind before any cur that will take the trouble to chase him. 
The gray wolf of Canada is about five feet six inches long from point of nose 
to tip of tail, and attains an average height of twenty-six inches at the shoulder, 
" ‘ In good condition he weighs about 100 pounds. 
The eye of the wolf is of a greenish colour, which adds to his sinister and cun- 
ane appearance. His tail is well haired and bushy, but not so long as that of the 
Ox. 
3 The wolf subsists on any refuse he can pick up, and is generally to be found 
e. skirmishing on the outskirts of settlements vr hunters camps. 
_ The female whelps in May, when four to eight pups are produced at a birth. 
The wolf breeds freely with the dog, and in every Indian camp dogs are to be 
seen so peculiarly wolfish in aspect and characteristics, as to render them indistin- 
guishable from their wild cousins. 
The wolf is essentially the enemy of the deer, and the destruction wrought 
by him is great and merciless. On the glare ice the deer has no chance of escape 
from the pursuer, falling flat at every step, and being easily overtaken by the band 
of snapping cowards which pursue it. But the worst slaughter occurs when the 
snow is deep and coyered by crust strong enough to support the wolf, but through 
which the deer falls step by step. Then it is that the deer yield up their lives in 
hundreds, and it is little wonder that with the wolf on one hand and the human 
assassin on the other, the noble species is disappearing fast. 
On account of his cowardice and cunning, the wolf is hunted with difficulty, 
and only with poison can the wretch be effectually reached. 
The work of the wolf hunter is arduous and dangerous, and, as at present, 
but small inducement is held out to him, comparatively few wolves are killed. 
. H i. Ph ie! 
