THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
401 
44 Declaration touching Wolves. 
44 For the better destroying of wolves, which of late years have 
much increased in most parts of this nation, it is ordered that 
the commanders in chiefe and commissioners of the Revenue in 
the several precincts doe consider of, use, and execute all good 
wayes and meanes how the wolves in the counties and places 
within the respective precincts may be taken and destroyed; 
and to employ such person or persons, and to appoint such daies 
and tymes for hunting the wolfe, as they shall adjudge necessary. 
And it is further ordered that all such person or persons as shall 
take, kill, or destroy any wolfes and shall bring forth the head 
of the wolfe before the said commanders of the revenue, shall 
receive the sums following, viz., for every bitch wolfe, six 
pounds ;* for every dog wolfe, five pounds ; for every cubb 
which preyeth for himself, forty shillings ; for every suckling 
cubb, ten shillings. And no wolfe after the last September 
until the 10th January be accounted a young wolfe, and the 
Commissioners of the Revenue shall cause the same to be 
■equalHe assessed within their precincts. 
“Dublin, June 29, 1653.”f 
The assessments here ordered fell heavily in some districts. 
Thus in December, 1665, the inhabitants of Mayo County peti- 
tioned the Council of State that the Commissioners of assess- 
ment might be at liberty to compound for wolfe-heads ; which 
was ordered accordingly. 
In 1662, as appears by the Journals of the House of Commons, 
Sir John Ponsonby reported from the Committee of Grievances 
that a bill should be brought in 44 to encourage the killing of 
wolves and foxes in Ireland.” 
In the 44 Travels of the Grrand Duke Cosmo III. in England,” 
1669 (p. 103), the author speaks of wolves as common in Ire- 
land, 44 for the hunting of which the dogs called 4 mastiffs ’ are 
in great request.” 
O’Flaherty in his 44 West or H’lar Connaught” (1684) enu- 
merates the wild animals which were to be found in that district 
in his day, and names 44 wolves , deere, foxes, badgers, hedge- 
hogs, hares, rabbets, squirrells, martens, weesles, and the amphi- 
* The price paid in Sutherlandshire, in 1621, was 61. 13s. 4c?. Cf. antea , 
p. 257. 
t These documents were extracted from the original Privy Council Book 
of Cromwell’s government in Ireland, preserved in Dublin Castle, and are 
quoted by Hardiman in his edition of O’Flaherty’s “ West or HTar Con- 
naught,” p. 180. 
NEW SERIES, VOL. II. — NO. VIII. D D 
