286 
THE WOLF. 
picious object is in that direction. Then 
they advance, snuffing the coming vapours, 
and keep as much as possible along hedges 
and brushwood, to avoid detection, pushing 
forward to the distance of many miles in a 
single journey. If there be several, they keep 
in file, and step so nearly in each others’ tracks 
that in soft ground it would seem as if only 
one had passed. They bound across narrow 
roads without leaving a footprint, or follow 
them on the outside. These movements 
seldom begin before dark, nor are they pro¬ 
tracted beyond daybreak. If single, the wolf 
will visit out-houses, enter the farm-yard, 
first listening, smelling the ground, snuffing 
up the air, and bounding over the threshold 
without touching it. Then he retreats: his 
head is low, turned obliquely, the one ear 
forward, the other back, his eyes burning 
like flame. He trots crouching, his brush 
obliterating the tracks of his feet, till at a 
distance from the scene of depredation, when, 
going more freely, he continues his route 
to cover, and, as he enters it, first raises his 
tail and flings it up in triumph. It is said 
that a wolf, when pressed by hunger and 
roaming around farms, will utter a single 
