THE GRAY OK TIMBER WOLF, 



557 



the si)ort that fox-hunting furnishes. In recent years, the English 

 custom of hunting on horseback has grown up to some extent, but it 

 is in a very much modified form, the horses being generally mere 

 farm or driving horses and their riders a few enthusiastic farmers 

 instead of a company of fashionablj^ dressed men and women. 



Genus Canis Linnaeus. 

 Canis Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, p. 38, 1758. 

 Dental Formula.— 1, C, Pm, ; M, |e|=42. 



Generic characters. — Upper incisors with distinctly lobed cut- 

 ting edges ; pupil of the eye circular instead of elliptical as in the 

 foxes; size usually rather large in the wild American species. 



The genus Canis includes our familiar domesticated dogs and 

 hence has a world wide distribution. The wild species are also 

 native to most parts of the world, nearly 20 species being found in 

 North America. Two species occur in Indiana. They may be dis- 

 tinguished as follows: 



Color gray, darkest on back and shoulders ; hind foot about 9 inches ; tail 

 15 inches or more occidentalis. 

 Color more yellowish ; hind foot less than 8 inches ; tail under 8 inches. 



latrans. 



CANIS OCCIDENTALIS (Richardson). 

 GRAY WOLF; TIMBER WOLF. 



Canis lupus occidentalis Richardson, Faun. Bor. Amer., I, p. 60, 

 1829. 



Canis lupus Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 



1893, p. 135, 1894. 

 Canis occidentalis Bangs, Amer. Nat., Vol. 32, p. 505, July, 



1898. 



Hahn, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 32, p. 462, 1907; Vol. 35, 

 p. 576, 1908. 



Canis nuhilis McAtee, Proc. Biol. Soc. of Wash., Vol. 20, p. 6, 

 1907. 



Diagnostic characters.— The gray fur with the darker shoulder 

 patches, and large size, distinguish this species. 



Description.— Back usually grizzled gray, darkest along middle 

 line and over the shoulders and hips; sometimes more yellowish; 

 belly dirty white. The color varies greatly ; hair long and rather 

 coarse ; body large and powerfully built. 



Measurements. — I have no measurements of Indiana specimens. 



