. ,15 



Specific Characters. — This wolf is the largest of the genus, from 3 to 5 

 feet long, average about 4 ; tail 12 to 18 inches ; skull 8 to 11 inches, 

 usually 9 to 10 ; width of skull 4f to 5f , generally about 5 J inches. Color 

 indeterminate, varying from pure white to grizzled gray and brindled 

 wolves, through mixed reddish qnd black forms to dusky or plumbeous 

 brown, and even black. 



The colors are indicated in the accompanying synonymy by Dr. Coues, 

 who has made six groups of the American wolf, based on the color. The 

 distribution is given in the synonymy. The more usual color, it will be 

 noticed, is the gray, a form of medium size and most general distribu- 

 tion. Should a stray wolf still remain in the hills of Southern Ohio, or 

 occasionally stray over from the mountainous regions of Kentucky, this 

 would be the probable form. 



The gray wolf is found all over North America to the arctic regions, 

 the others are more local in their range. A pure white is found in the 

 Upper Missouri and in alpine regions, a dusky, blackish, plumbeous 

 wolf in the Lower Missouri region, an entirely red or rufous in Texas, 

 and an entirely black wolf in Florida and the Southern States ; these 

 varying conditions of albinism and melanism, from arctic to southern 

 regions, and the diminution in size toward equatorial latitudes, are well 

 marked in this species. The study of the synonymy is instructive, show- 

 ing, that a species cannot be properly named and defined until collections 

 have been made from all parts of its range, and careful comparisons made 

 between apparently distinct species. 



Since the above was written I have the following notes from Mr. 

 Langdon : 



In a "History of Seneca County, Ohio," by C. W. Butterfield, published 

 at Sandusky in 1848, I find the following remarks on wolves : 



" Wolf Creek, another tributary of the Sandusky, rises in the south-west part of the 

 county (etc. •••»). This stream, running through a level country, is somewhat 

 sluggish. It received its name from the circumstance of a great number of wolves for- 

 merly inhabiting the swamps near its source, and the thickets around the wet prairie a 

 little west of its mouth." 



The following extract is taken from the "Pioneer History of the Ohio 

 Valley," Hildreth ; 1848, Cincinnati : 



" The wolf for thirty years was a great hindrance to the raising of sheep, and for a 

 long period the State paid a bounty for their scalps. Neighboring farmers often associ- 

 ated and paid an additional bounty of ten or fifteen dollars, so as to make it an object 

 of profit for certain old hunters to employ their whole time and skill in entrapping 

 them. At this period (1848) the race is nearly extinct in the Ohio Company's lands." 



Dr. Kirtland speaks of the wolf as "becoming very rare" — Ohio Geol, 

 Survey, 1838. List of mammals of Ohio. 



