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[23.] 2. Canis LaTRANS. (Say.) The Prairie Wolf. 
Small Wolves. Du Pratz, Louisiana, vol. ii. p. 54. 
Prairie Wolf. Gass’s Journal, &c., p. 56. 
Prairie Wolf and Burrowing Dog. Lewis and Crark, vol. i. pp. 102, 134, 2835 vol. ili. pp. 28, 238. 
ScHootcraFt’s Travels, p. 285. 
Canis latrans. Say. Long’s Exped., p. 27, note, p. 332. 
Cased Wolves. Hupson Bay Company’s Lists. 
Meesteh-chaggoneesh. CREE INDIANS. 
Pate tv. 
This animal has long been known to voyagers on the Missouri and Saskatche- 
wan as distinct from the Common Wolf. It is mentioned in Mr. Graham’s MSS., 
and its skins have always formed part of the Hudson Bay Company’s importa- 
tions, under the name of Cased Wolves*. Lewis and Clark give a good descrip- 
tion of it (vol. i. p. 283), and Mr. Say has added the specific name. The Prairie 
Wolf has much resemblance to the common Gray Wolf in colour, but differs from 
it so much in size, voice and manners, that it is fully entitled to rank as a distinct 
species. ‘It inhabits the plains of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, and also, 
though in smaller numbers, those of the Columbia. On the banks of the Sas- 
katchewan, these animals start from the earth in great numbers on hearing the 
report of a gun, and gather around the hunter in expectation of getting the offal of 
the animal he has slaughtered. ‘They hunt in packs, and are much more fleet than 
the Common Wolf. I was informed by a gentleman who has resided forty years 
on the Saskatchewan, and is an experienced hunter, that the only animal on the 
plains which he could not overtake, when mounted on a good horse, was the Prong- 
horned Antelope, and that the meesteh-chaggoneesh or Prairie Wolf was the next 
im speed. The Canadian stag is less fleet ; and as to the red fox, it is soon run down. 
The northern range of the Prairie Wolf is about the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, 
and it probably extends southwards to Mexico. It associates in greater numbers 
than the Gray Wolf of the same districts; hunts in packs, and brings forth its 
young in burrows on the open plain remote from the woods. 
The Prairie Wolf, described by Lewis and Clark and Mr. Say, has a narrower 
* The skins are not split open like the large Wolf skins, but stripped off and inverted or cased, like the skin 
of a fox or rabbit. 
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