78 TOWNSEND'S LUPUS GIGAS. 



indeed, described some of the northern kinds of wolf as distinct, but it never seems to 

 have been doubted that a vs^olf, possessing all the characters of the European wolf, 

 exists within the limits of the United States, The wolf to which these characters 

 have been ascribed seems to be "the large brown wolf" of Lewis and Clark, and, 

 according to them, inhabits not only the Atlantic countries, but also the borders of 

 the Pacific and the mountains which approach the Columbia river, between the 

 Great Falls and rapids, but is not found on the Missouri to the westward of the 

 Plalte. / have seen none of these brown wolves, but if their resemblance to the 

 European wolf is as strong as Major Smith states it to be, I have no hesitation in 

 saying that they differ decidedly from the wolf which inhabits the countries north of 

 Canada." And Dr. Richardson then adds that during seven years sojourn in the 

 northern regions of America, and travelling over 20,000 miles, he never saw a wolf 

 " which had the gaunt appearance, the comparatively long jaw and tapering nose, 

 the high ears, long legs, slender loins and narrow feet of the Pyrcnnean wolf. All 

 the northern wolves, whatever their colors are, have certain characters in common, 

 wherein they differ from the European race."* 



It is therefore evident, that so far from applying the name of Canis occidentalis to 

 the great hrorvn wolf, Dr. Richardson expressly states that he never saw that animal ; 

 and his specific name is as expressly applied to the common wolf oi America in all its 

 varieties, grey, black, and pied. The importance of this designation has now become 

 indispensable in natural history, because he repeats it unprovisionally in his 

 Appendix to Capt. Back's Narrative, and again in his report on North American 

 Zoology, published in the Transactions of the British Association for 1836. And yet 

 later, Mr. John Edward Gray, in the Catalogue of the British Museum (1849) calls 

 the common American wolf Canis occidentalis. Prof Agassiz, Dr. Dekay, and some 

 other zoologists have adopted the same name in order to separate, in a specific 

 manner, this animal from the wolf of the old world, C. lupus, for it yet remained to 

 be proved that the latter has ever been seen in North America, and it is my decided 

 conviction that it does not belong to our Fauna. On this point I feel as if I had a 

 right to express a decided opinion, inasmuch as I travelled from St. Louis to Fort 

 Vancouver, gun in hand, and shot, not only the Canis occidentalis of Richardson, but 

 also the C. latrans of Say repeatedly, and twice the C. gigas. 



Under these circumstances it is evident that the title which has been applied to the 

 last named animal cannot be retained, and with every deference to my friend Mr. 

 Peale, yet impressed with the stronger claims of the interests of science, I must be 

 allowed to change it. 



It is remarked by Dr. (now Sir John) Richardson, that the California wolf, Canis 

 ochropus, and that of Mexico, C. nigrirostris, may be only varieties of the C. lalrans 



* Fauna Boreali Americana; p. 61. 



