88 WOLF. Class I. 



hedges, out-houses, Qc. and is the most perni- 

 cious of the three to the feathered tribe. The 

 first of these varieties has a white tag or tip to 

 the tail; the last a black. The number of 

 these animals in general would soon become in- 

 tolerable, if they were not proscribed, by having 

 a certain reward set on their heads. 

 Wolf. In this place we should introduce the* wolf, 



a congenerous animal, if we had not fortunately 

 a just right to omit it in a history of British 

 quadrupeds. It was, as appears by Holling- 

 shed,\ very noxious to the flocks in Scotland in 

 1577; nor was it entirely extirpated till about 

 1680, when the last wolf fell by the hand of the 

 famous Sir Erven Cameron. We may there- 

 fore with confidence assert the non-existence 

 of those animals, notwithstanding M. de Buffo n 

 maintains that the English pretend to the con- 

 trary.^ 



It has been a received opinion, that the other 

 parts of these kingdoms were in early times de- 

 livered from this pest by the care of king Edgar. 

 In England he attempted to effect it by com- 

 muting the punishments for certain crimes into 

 the acceptance of a number of wolves tongues 

 from each criminal : in J Vales, by converting the 



* Hist. quad. N. 15<L p. 248. Arctic Zool. i. N. Q. 

 f Disc. Scot. 10. X Tom. vii p. 50. 



