176 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
the jackal does to the Old. They are essentially prairie an- 
imals, and invariably live in burrows, while the larger race, 
although found in the open country, is partial to forest, and 
generally sleeps in a nest or den upon the surface of the 
soil or in a crevice of the rocks. The prairie-wolves and 
coyotes are timid little fellows, living and hunting in com- 
munities, and if captured young are easily tamed, becoming 
much attached to their owner, and when in that state not 
unfrequently display sagacity worthy of the dog; while the 
larger wolf becomes sullen and treacherous with age, ever 
evincing an unconquerable dislike to his domesticated re- 
lation, the dog, and if at any time able to recover his liber- 
ty will at once return to the modes of life of his ancestry. 
In courage the gray wolf of America materially differs 
from the Old World race, it being of very rare occurrence 
for them to attack human beings; still such have happen- 
ed, but never, I believe, in the powerful bands trooped to- 
gether that scour the steppes of Western Siberia and East- 
ern European Russia. It may be that game being more 
abundant in North America the animals do not get reduced 
to the same straits from hunger; but this I doubt, for tray- 
elers of authority generally advance the opinion that finer 
hunting-grounds than those that margin the Ural range are 
nowhere to be found. No, the ferocity of those of the Old 
World is in my belief attributable to this: Europe and Asia 
have ever been the scenes of intestine wars, dead and wound- 
ed have been deserted and left to perish — naturally, the 
wild animals have preyed upon them, and thus become so 
familiar with our race as to know their helplessness and 
want of powers of resistance. Of course the Indians have 
carried on wars among themselves, and the white man has 
constantly been in the habit of invading the territories of 
the aborigines, but the slaughter in these forays has been 
trifling, the victims on either side seldom left without inter- 
