THE BLACK WOLF. 
means of preserving their slaughtered game from the hungry maws of the Wolves that ever 
accompany a hunter, and hang on his steps in hope of obtaining the offal of such animals as he 
may slaughter, or of securing such creatures as he may wound and fail to kill on the spot. In 
order to preserve the carcass of a slain buffalo or deer, the hunter merely plants a stick by the 
side of the animal, and ties to the top of the stick a fluttering piece of linen, or any similar 
substance, and then goes his way, secure that the Wolves will not dare to approach such an 
object. In default of a strip of calico or linen, the inflated bladder of the dead animal is an 
approved “ scare-wolf ; ” and, as a last resource, a strip of its hide is used for that purpose. 
To this peculiarity have been owing, not only the preservation of game, but the lives of 
defenceless travellers. It has several times happened that a band of Wolves have been press- 
ing closely upon the footsteps of their human quarry, and have been checked in their onward 
course by the judicious exhibition of certain articles of which the Wolves were suspicious, and 
from which they kept, aloof until they had satisfied themselves of their harmlessness. As one 
article began to lose its efficacy, another was exhibited, so that the persecuted travellers were 
BLACK WOLF. — Canis occidentalis. 
enabled to gain the refuge of some friendly village, and to baffle the furious animals by means 
which in themselves were utterly inadequate to their effects. A piece of rope trailed from a 
horse or carriage is always an object of much fear to the Wolves. 
When the Wolf is once within a trap, it becomes the most cowardly of animals, and will 
permit itself to be handled or wounded without displaying the least sign of animation, or 
attempting to resist the hand of its destroyer. The sensation of imprisonment appears to 
deprive it of all energy, and it sometimes happens that a trapped Wolf is so entirely destitute 
of self-control, that it has permitted the hunter to drag it from the trap, and to make it lie 
passively by his side while he reset the trap for the occupancy of another victim. On one 
occasion, a pitfall -trap contained two occupants, one a Wolf, and the other a poor old woman, 
who had unfortunately fallen into the pit when returning from her work. The Wolf was so 
cowed by finding itself entrapped, that it made no attempt to injure its fellow prisoner, but lay 
quietly at the bottom of the pit, and was shot in the morning by a peasant. 
The Black Wole of America was thought by some naturalists to be only a variety of 
the common Wolf, but it is now considered to be a distinct species. Not only does the color 
