CANIDE 549 
Wolf (C. pallipes), which is rather smaller and slighter than C. Jupus, 
is not found in Ceylon, nor in Burma and Siam. The ordinary 
colour of the Common Wolf is a yellowish or fulvous gray, but 
specimens have been met with almost pure white and others entirely 
black. In northern countries the fur is longer and thicker, and the 
animal generally larger and more powerful than in the southern por- 
tion of its range; this being especially the case with the Tibetan 
races. The habits of the Wolf are similar everywhere, and it is still, 
and has been from time immemorial, especially known to man in all 
the countries it inhabits as the devastator of his flocks of sheep. They 
do not catch their prey by lying in ambush, or stealing up close to 
it and making a sudden spring as the Cat tribe do, but by fairly 
running it down in open chase, which their speed and remarkable 
endurance enable them to do; and usually, except during summer, 
when the young families of cubs are being separately provided for 
by their parents, they assemble in troops or packs, and by their 
combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower and kill 
even such great animals as the American Bison. It is singular that 
such closely allied species as the Domestic Dog and the Arctic Fox 
are among the favourite prey of Wolves, and, as is well known, 
children and even full-grown people are not unfrequently the 
objects of their attack when pressed by hunger. Notwithstanding 
the proverbial ferocity of the Wolf in a wild state, many instances 
are recorded of animals taken when quite young becoming perfectly 
tame and attached to the person who has brought them up, when 
they exhibit many of the ways of a Dog. They can, however, 
rarely be trusted by strangers. 
The history of the Wolf in the British Isles and its gradual 
extirpation has been thoroughly investigated by Mr. J. E. Harting 
in his work on Eatinct British Animals, from which the following 
account is abridged: To judge by the osteological remains which 
the researches of geologists have brought to light, there was per- 
haps scarcely a county in England or Wales in which, at one time 
or another, wolves did not abound, while in Scotland and Ireland 
they must have been still more numerous. The fossil remains 
which have been discovered in Britain are not larger than, nor in 
any way to be distinguished from, those of European wolves of the 
present day. Wolf-hunting was a favourite pursuit of the ancient 
Britons as well as of the Anglo-Saxons. In Athelstan’s reign these 
animals abounded to such an extent in Yorkshire that a retreat was 
built by one Acehorn, at Flixton, near Filey, wherein travellers 
might seek refuge if attacked by them. As is well known, great 
efforts were made by King Edgar to reduce the number of wolves 
in the country, but, notwithstanding the annual tribute of 300 
skins paid to him during several years by the king of Wales, he 
was not altogether so successful as has been commonly imagined. 
