154 
PRAIRIE WOLF. 
before we could interfere, had reached a point opposite a raised window, 
and to our surprise, made a sudden spring at it and jumped into the 
waiehouse without touching the edges of the sills, in the most admir- 
able manner, while his foes were completely baffled. 
After this adventure the Wolf would no longer go out in the town 
and seemed to give up his wish to extend the circle of his acquaintance. 
The Barking or Prairie Wolf digs its burrows upon the prairies on 
some slight elevation, to prevent them from being filled with water. 
These dens have several entrances, like those of the red fox. The 
young, from five to seven and occasionally more in number, are brought 
forth in March and April. They associate in greater numbers than 
the larger Wolves, hunt in packs, and are said by Ricuardson to be 
fleeter than the common Wolf. A gentleman, an experienced hunter 
on the Saskatchewan, informed him 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 Prairie Wolf was next in speed. 
All our travellers have informed us, that on the report of a gun on the 
prairies, numbers of these Wolves start from the earth, and warily 
approach the hunter, under an expectation of obtaining the offal of the 
animal he has killed. 
The skins of the Prairie Wolves are of some value, the fur being soft 
and warm ; they form a part of the Hudson Bay Company’s exportations, 
to what extent we are not informed. Richardson says they go under 
the name of cased-wolves skins, not split open like those of the large 
Wolf, but stripped off and inverted or cased, like the skin of a fox 
or rabbit. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
According to Richardson, the northern range of this species is about 
the fifty-fifth degree of latitude. It is found abundantly on the plains of 
the western prairies and sparingly on the plains adjoining the woody 
shores of the Columbia river. It exists in California, and is found in 
Texas and on the eastern side of the mountains in New Mexico. 
We have traced it to within the tropics, but are not aware that it reaches 
as far south as Panama. The western branches of the Missouri river 
appear to be its farthest eastern range. 
