42 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
been copied by subsequent authors, almost without alteration. “ The glutton,’ 
says he, “ (Latinice gulo) is the most noted of all the animals which inhabit the 
north of Sweden, for its insatiable appetite, whence it has obtained the appellation 
of jerf, in the language of that .country, of wi/fras, in German, and rosomaka, in 
Sclavonian.”” “ It is wont, when it has found the carcase of some large beast, to 
eat until its belly is distended like a drum, when it rids itself of its load by squeez- 
ing its body betwixt two trees growing near together, and again returning to its 
repast, soon requires to have recourse to the same means of relief*.” This trait 
in its character, however, is treated as a fiction by the traveller Gmelin, who, in 
journeying through Siberia, had an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of its 
habits from the hunters. Buffon, on the authority of the reports of preceding 
authors, describes it as a ferocious animal, which approaches man without fear, and 
attacks the Jarger quadrupeds without hesitation ; but he states that its pace is so 
slow that it can take its prey only by surprise, to accomplish which it employs an 
extraordinary degree of cunning. He terms it the ‘* quadruped-vulture,’”’ and 
repeats the statement of Isbrand, that it is accustomed to ascend a tree and lie in 
wait for the elks and rein-deer, dropping on their backs as they pass, and adhering 
so firmly by its claws, that all their efforts to dislodge it are in vain, and they 
speedily fall a prey to its voracity. It is even said to entice the rein-deer to come 
beneath the tree in which it lies concealed, by throwing down the moss which that 
animal is fond of, and that the arctic fox is its jackal or provider}. This 
character seems to be entirely fictitious, and to have partly originated in the 
name of ‘‘elutton”? having been given occasionally to the lynxes and sloths. I 
have, however, thought proper to recapitulate it here, previous to stating that it is 
very dissimilar to the habits of the American Wolverene, which is by many able 
naturalists considered to be the same species. 
The Wolverene is first noticed by La Hontan, who says that it is very like a badger, 
but is larger and fiercer. He calls it the carcqouw, which is the appellation by 
which it is still known to the French Canadian voyagers. Subsequent writers, 
however, have occasionally, through mistake, given the same name to the 
American Badger, and also to several species of felis, whence doubts have been 
excited as to the animal actually meant by La Hontan. The European labourers 
in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company term it Quickehatch, which is 
evidently derived from its Cree or Algonquin name of ofee-coo-haw-gees, and 
* OLaus Maenvus, Gent. Septen., p. 138. 
+ A similar account has been told of the foxes in Canada driving the moose deer to a spot-where the karkajou, 
described as having a long tail, is posted— Voyage d’ Amérique, vol, i. p.272. An, 1723. 
