CHAPTER Y. 
THE WOLF:— DESCRIPTION, HABITS AND RAVENOUS CHARACTER, 
ITS DEPREDATIONS: INCIDENT AT BIDDEFORD . — THE PRAIRIE 
WOLF, ITS HABITAT — ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE AND FAILURE — 
DUSKY, AND BLACK WOLF. 
The Wolf. Description . — Head broad, muzzle pointed, 
eyes small ; ears erect and pointed, tail long, straight and 
bushy, tipped with black, voice howling, color various, mostly 
red, sometimes black or gray. 
There is no animal whose character in general estimation 
is worse than that of the wolf (Cams Lupus). And yet when 
we take into account that he is a universal outcast and entirely 
dependent upon rapine for his subsistence, we cannot blame 
him for living as he does, since he must either destroy or 
starve. The carnivorous tribes are evidently designed for 
the destruction of others, their teeth and claws being given 
them for this purpose. On the contrary, herbivorous animals, 
as the cow and sheep, require no such means of procuring 
their food, and accordingly are furnished only with teeth for 
cropping and grinding vegetables. Now although we are 
bound to protect ourselves from the fangs of the tiger and 
the cunning of the wolf by the destruction of these animals, 
yet so far as the animals themselves are concerned, the wolf 
is no more to blame for killing the sheep than the latter is 
for plucking the grass, because these are the only means by 
which the Creator intended these different animals to live. 
Torturing the wolf therefore for having destroyed the lamb, 
is no more excusable in us, than punishing the lamb because 
he happened to pluck some plant which we particularly value. 
This sullen and unpleasant looking animal, the most raven- 
ous and ferocious that infests the more temperate regions of 
