710 Former Range of New England Mammals. { December, 
ther, are still taken at long intervals throughout most of South- 
ern New England, where they are, however, nearly exterminated ; 
in the forests of the more northerly parts they are still more or 
less frequent. 
In early days the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was abundant 
everywhere, and as early as 1630 became an outlaw in the Plym- 
outh Colony. In that year the court ordered that any English- 
man who killed a wolf should have one penny for each horse and 
cow, and one farthing for “ each sheep and swine,” owned in the 
colony! In 1698 the town of Lynn voted to allow a premium 
of twenty shillings for every wolf destroyed in the town.2 Many 
writers refer to its great destructiveness to sheep and calves, 
and to its roaming at night in large packs. They also describe 
it as presenting a great variety of colors, showing that the 
same diversity of color occurred among the wolves of Southern 
New England that has been noticed among those of other sec- 
tions of the country. Thomas Morton, in a work published in 
1637,8 says, “ The wolfes are of divers coloures: some sandy 
coloured : some griselled, and some black. . . . . The skinnes are 
used by the Salvages, especially the skinne of the black wolfe, 
which is esteemed a present for a prince there.” 
It is now many years since the last wolf was seen in New En- 
gland east of the Connecticut and south of New Hampshire, but 
as late as the beginning of the present century it was abundant 
in Southern Maine as well as in Southern Vermont and New 
Hampshire, and was of rather frequent occurrence in the mount- 
ainous portions of Western Massachusetts. None are now found 
south of Northern Maine and the White Mountains. 
The gray fox (Urocyon Virginianus) is well known to have 
formerly ranged much farther northward than it does now. 
Even within the last thirty to fifty years it has disappeared over 
considerable areas along the northern border of its habitat. ; 
Extending northward formerly to the Great Lakes, it seems now 
to have nearly disappeared north of the Ohio River. It is a 
markings on the inside of the fore legs. ZL. “ Canadensis” being a more northern form 
than L. “rufus,” it generally has longer, softer, and fuller pelage, and the pads © 
the feet are more fully covered ; it has consequently the appearance 
length and fullness of the pelage. Hunters and trappers, however, recognize certain 
characteristic differences of habit, and call the two forms by different names. 
Lewis’s History of Lynn (edition of 1829), page 37. 
2 Ibid., page 144, 
8 New English Caanan, page 79. 
