THE BIG OA.MK C)l- \\ KSTKRX CHINA. 241 



probably not worth the trouble in spite of the damage 

 they cause, though raiding parties occasionally attempt to 

 exterminate them locally, with little success of course. 

 Curiously enough, we came across no deer in our first 

 journey over the Sin-ling range, though west of Sian they 

 are plentiful. Foxes were common, but wolves are only 

 occasionally meet with in these parts, and there is hardly 

 sufficient cover for anything else. 



Crossing the plain after passing through Sian-fu, we 

 kept on a south-westerly course in order to get back to the 

 Sin-ling range, as near to Tai-pei-san as possible; for we had 

 heard the mountains of that neighbourhood well spoken of 

 as a hunting centre. Two days west of the capital bird life 

 became extraordinarily abundant in the rice lands, cranes, 

 swan, herons, bustard, geese, mallard and teal being met 

 with in immense flocks; naturally, however, there is no cover 

 in this cultivated region, so that we could not expect to 

 find big game here. Hares there were, springing up from 

 behind almost any grassy grave mound one chose to 

 investigate, and occasionally a fox or a wolf. These latter lay 

 hidden in the stony water-courses, now dry, which frequently 

 interruptedthecontinuityofthe loess as we drew nearer to the 

 mountains: by day they slept, vigilant nevertheless, wandering 

 forth after nightfall to attack some lonely farm house. The 

 Chinese wolf, which is identical with the species inhabiting 

 Europe and North America 'Canis Iiifitts). this animal being 

 in fact circumpolar in distribution, differs from the forest 

 wolf of Siberian and Canadian forests in being far less 

 gregarious: the wolves of China hunt singly or in couples, 

 never in packs. I once saw three together early one January 

 morning, calmly trotting in single file up the valley to the 

 mountains after a night's raid, but that was probably quite 

 exceptional. The wolf is extremely common in parts of 

 Shensi and Shansi, and in time of famine becomesparticularly 

 fierce and desperate. It is quite a common event for two of 

 them to enter a village, approach the first house, sneak 

 inside as soon as the women have turned their backs, and 

 take the baby from the k'anx: in the same way children playing 

 in front of the doorway are sometimes snatched up and 

 made off with under their parents' eyes. Thus we came 

 across a man with the lower part of his face missing on one 

 side, and were informed that he had been bitten by a wolf 

 when he was a child. Dogs, numerous as they usually are 

 in a Chinese village, are almost useless on these occasions, as 

 the native vvonk is a rank coward, always afraid to take the 

 initiative in attack; moreover he seems quite incapable of 

 acting in concert with his fellows. In Kansu we saw a 

 rather curious instance of this. Early one morning, whilst 



