WOLVES. 



Canis lufus.—lAnn. (? var.) Grey, Timber, or Buffalo Woit. 

 Canis lairans.—Snj, Prairie Wolf, Coyote 



WE have always been taught to regard the Wolf as the type 

 of all detestable qualities, but he has also been invested 

 in romance and tradition with a courage and ferocity which is very 

 foreign to his nature. He is in fact, the most cowardly of all our 

 animals, possessing some of the intelligence of the dog, but none 

 of the higher instincts which long association with man has worked 

 into the being of the latter. The wolves unless pressed terribly by 

 hunger will never attack any animal larger than themselves, and 

 then only in packs. A cur dog, as a rule, can drive the largest 

 w^olf on the plains. Lean, gaunt and hungry looking, they are 

 the essence of meanness, and treachery personified. The two 

 common species of the plains are the Grey or Buffalo Wolf, Cam's 

 lupiis, and the ever present Coyote or Prairie Wolf, Canis latrans, 

 who makes night so hideous on the plains to novices unused to 

 his unearthly serenade. The Buflalo Wolf is almost as tall as a 

 greyhound, and is proportioned about like a setter dog. It is found 

 of all colors, from jet black in Florida and red in Texas to snow 

 white in the arctic regions. In the west the color is generally grey 

 or grizzled white, sometimes brindled. The ears are erect, and the 

 tail, long and well haired, is generally carried straight out behind, 

 but when the animal is frightened is put between his legs like that 

 of the dog under similar circumstances. The Prairie Wolf is in size 

 about half way between the red fox and Grey Wolf. Its color is 

 similar to that of its larger relation of the plains, but is of a more 

 yellowish cast 



The larger of these two species was once universally distributed 

 throughout North America, but is now confined to the wildest and 

 least settled portions of the country. The Prairie Wolf is an inhab- 



