HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
charges on all skunks which it buys. If you have 
anv choice specimens you wish to see write us full 
description of blackest you have and we will gladly 
make you quotation. We take AAA even if foot 
or leg gone. 
How can live Skunks be shipped? If the scent 
sacs have been removed you can ship a skunk by 
express in a box with wire netting over the open- 
ing. If the distance is great, supply plenty of dog 
biscuit or dry bread and a dish for water. Mark 
on box, "Please give water." If the weather is 
cold make a nest of straw in one end of box. 
What is the best age for removing the scent 
sacs ? This work can be done at any age easily 
unless the skunk is very fat. We strongly recom- 
mend that you begin on young skunks in the 
Spring, any time after the eyes are open. The 
young skunks are easily weaned. They readily 
take milk or bread and milk and do not need the 
mother. 
What kind of fencing do I need for Skunks? 
Poultry netting 2 to 3 feet in the ground and 4 to 
5 feet above ground makes the cheapest fence. 
To prevent climbing out make at the top an over- 
hang of netting 5 2 or I s inches wide or place a 
strip of tin about 18 inches wide on the inside of 
the fence near the top to make it smooth and 
slippery. The netting should be 1^-inch mesh for 
the main yard (for adults) and 1-inch mesh for 
the breeding pens. We can supply netting. 
THE PET WOLVES I HAVE MET. 
By Pierre Amedee Pic hot. 
Under the heading, "The Wild Animals as 
House Pets," Mr. H. .S. Spencer has contributed 
to the " Menagerie Magazine" an interesting arti- 
cle on wolves, but the writer has rather dealt with 
the historical records of these deizens of the forest 
than with their behaviour under the management 
of man. Though I doubt that the Little Red Riding 
Hood should ever have thought of making a pet 
of the wolf which she discovered under her grand- 
mother's bed clothes, yet many persons have 
proved more enterprising and have, at times, in- 
troduced the wolf to the intimacy of their family 
circle. During the dark ages, when the monks 
and hermits sought the recesses of the extensive 
forest lands which at that time covered the greater 
part of Gaul,, those pious folks have had frequent 
intercourse with the wild beasts, and numerous 
accounts have been preserved of their success in 
taming them. I dare say many of these state- 
ments have been magnified by popular folk-lore, 
yet there must have been a certain amount of truth 
in the records of the memorialists.. One of the 
most ancient writers on monastical life, Sulfricius 
Severus, who at the end of the fourth Century had 
visited Egypt to study the establishments of the 
religious orders, has reported several instances 
of the dealings of the Holy Fathers with the wild 
animals of the desert, and says that he saw a 
monk feeding peacefully a lion with dates from 
the palm trees, while at the door of a hut occupied 
by another hermit, a she-wolf came every day to 
be fed with the scraps from the recluse's frugal 
repast and licked the hand, of its kind host in 
return. Herve, the blind patron of the Brittany 
Cards, was led about by a wolf which he had 
compelled to supply the place of his dog which 
this animal had devoured, and a wolf having killed 
Saint Malo's donkey had been mad to carry the 
panniers in which the .Saint collected dry wood 
from the forest. Thegonnec, another Armorican 
Abbot, is also credited with having engaged a 
wolf to draw the cart loaded with the materials 
lor building his church. 
But it is with tame wolves in modern times 
that I am concerned, and I may state that I have 
seen the Russian artist, Troubetskoy, turn up with 
two wolves in a leash at one of our dog shows. 
One of the best animal painters of our days, Ed. 
Merite, has kept these last four years a wolf which 
he has reared by hand after having taken it from 
the lair when about ten days old. For over six 
months he was on very familiar terms with his 
pupil, entering in its den without any apprehen- 
sion, and often accompanied by his pointer; but 
one day the wolf without any forewarning, flew 
at the throat of the^dog which Merite had great 
trouble to rescue from the powerful grip, and ever 
since he has refrained from coming to close quar- 
ters with the willy brute. However, this wolf 
knows well its master, rejoices at seeing him on 
his return home, licks his hands, and would lain 
fawn upon him if the artist did not take good 
care to keep the bars of the railing between him- 
self and his pensioner. 
At Gencay, in the Department of the Yienne, 
a master of hounds, M. Lamoudie, has long kept 
a couple of she-wolves in his kennels alongside 
with his hounds, and they were often mustered in 
the open with the pack. Then the most remark- 
able tame wolves 1 ever saw were those belong- 
ing to the renowned louvetier of the Andelvs, in 
Normandy, the Count Le Couteulx de Canteleu. 
There were three of them which had been taken 
quite young and thoroughly domesticated; they 
lived with the hounds and were as much under con- 
trol as the rest of the pack, even when taken out 
for a walk. Yet, strange to say, they were often 
used for entering young hounds to the rather 
fickle quarry that wolves are, and which many 
hounds do not take to freely. On such occasions, 
they were let loose in the adjoining park of M. 
Saint-Evron entirely enclosed by stone walls, and 
