THE BLACK WOLF. 



263 



means of preserving their slaughtered game from the hungry maws of the Wolves that ever 

 accompany a hunter, and hang on his steps in hope of obtaining the offal of such animals as he 

 may slaughter, or of securing such creatures as he may wound and fail to kill on the spot. In 

 order to preserve the carcass of a slain buffalo or deer, the hunter merely plants a stick by the 

 side of the animal, and ties to the top of the stick a fluttering piece of linen, or any similar 

 substance, and then goes his way, secure that the Wolves will not dare to approach such an 

 object. In default of a strip of calico or linen, the inflated bladder of the dead animal is an 

 approved "scare-wolf ; " and, as a last resource, a strip of its hide is used for that purpose. 



To this peculiarity have been owing, not only the preservation of game, but the lives of 

 defenceless travellers. It has several times happened that a band of Wolves have been press- 

 ing closely upon the footsteps of their human quarry, and have been checked in their onward 

 course by the judicious exhibition of certain articles of which the Wolves were suspicious, and 

 from which they kept aloof until they had satisfied themselves of their harmlessness. As one 

 article began to lose its efficacy, another was exhibited, so that the persecuted travellers were 





af3y^'.',VU)TA^ 



BLACK WOLF.— Canu occidentalis. 



enabled to gain the refuge of some friendly village, and to baffle the furious animals by means 

 which in themselves were utterly inadequate to their effects. A piece of rope trailed from a 

 horse or carriage is always an object of much fear to the Wolves. 



When the Wolf is once within a trap, it becomes the most cowardly of animals, and will 

 permit itself to be handled or wounded without displaying the least sign of animation, or 

 attempting to resist the hand of its destroyer. The sensation of imprisonment appears to 

 deprive it of all energy, and it sometimes happens that a trapped Wolf is so entirely destitute 

 of self-control, that it has permitted the hunter to drag it from the trap, and to make it lie 

 passively by his side while he reset the trap for the occupancy of another victim. On one 

 occasion, a pitfall -trap contained two occupants, one a Wolf, and the other a poor old wqman, 

 who had unfortunately fallen into the pit when returning from her work. The Wolf was so 

 cowed by finding itself entrapped, that it made no attempt to injure its fellow prisoner, but lay 

 quietly at the bottom of the pit, and was shot in the morning by a peasant. 



The Black Wolf of America was thought by some naturalists to be only a variety of 

 the common Wolf, but it is now considered to be a distinct species. Not only does the color 



