TOWNSEND'S LUPUS GIGAS. 77 



about the head neck and shoulders, shorter and wiry on the back, rump and legs. 

 The tail is shorter, straighter and less bushy than that of the common wolf. In form 

 the buifalo wolf approaches nearer to the St. Bernard mastiff, and having recently 

 had an opportunity of seeing some of the finest dogs of this and the Newfoundland 

 breeds, that the full-grown male buffalo- wolf is equal in size and superior in strength 

 to the majority of them. 



*' The appearance of this wolf is, to the hunter, a certain indication of the 

 proximity of buffalo, as they follow closely the movements of these animals, and seize 

 upon the infirm and crippled and upon the calves, which become separated from the 

 herd. I have been assured that they will attack and hamstring the largest buffalo, 

 which thus becomes an easy prey. 



"Their gait is a long steady trot, or quick and vigorous run, very different from the 

 slouching gallop of the common wolf. The tail is carried straight, and at a slight 

 angle from the body, much as we observe it in a pointer dog when hunting. 



** The cranium will be found to present a resemblance to that of the Newfoundland 

 or mastiff dog, in the great comparative size of its posterior superior portion." 



I will not venture to say that the buffalo-wolf of Texas is identical in species with 

 the one now under consideration, nor can this poiut be decided except by future 

 comparisons. It was my intention to have described this wolf soon after returning 

 home, for I was then convinced that it was a new species, an opinion in which Dr. 

 Morton concurred with me from a comparison of the skull with those of the other 

 American species of this genus. Being prevented, as before remarked from 

 publishing the description, I at length ascertained that the Giant Wolf had 

 subsequently been procured on the western coast of this continent by the U. S. 

 Exploring Expedition, commanded by Captain Wilkes. I consequently gave 

 myself no further thought about it until the zoology of that expedition was published, 

 when I observed that Mr. Titian R. Peale had described and figured this animal by 

 the name of Canis occidentalis. His remarks are as follows : 



" The name which Dr. Richardson has suggested as general for the wolves of 

 North America, we have applied to this one in particular, which is considered the 

 most characteristic species, because the least variable of any on our continent, and as 

 they are distinct from those of the north, being found in the temperate parts of this 

 country only, there is less probability of its being identical with the wolf of Europe." 



But a perusal of Dr. Richardson's observations on this subject will satisfy any one 

 that he never designed the name of C. occidentalis for this wolf, but on the contrary 

 gives it to an entirely different species, for under the head of Canus lupus occidentalis 

 he expresses himself in the following terms : 



" The common wolves of the Old and New World have been generally supposed to 



be the same species, the Canis lupus of Linnfeus. The American naturalists have, 



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