Diversities appear in the wolves of different countries of Europe and Asia, but not very considerable. The French wolves are generally browner, and rather smaller, than those of Germany; the wolves of Russia are larger, and have longer hair; the wolves of the Alps are brownish-gray, and not of large size; in Italy and Turkey a tawny color predominates. In some very northern regions, wolves become white in winter; and white wolves, probably albinos, sometimes occur in more southern regions. The black wolf is the most marked European variety. It is found in the Pyrenees and in Spain, and is very large and strong. Strings of mules are often followed by these wolves in the passes of the Pyrenees, after evening comes on, and they not unfrequently succeed, notwithstanding all the care of the muleteers, in capturing some of the animals.
Wolves are still very plentiful in some parts of Europe. In the Pyrenees and Ar dennes, among the Carpathian mountains, in Turkey and the principalities, they are common; and in the vast forests of Poland and Russia wolves often appear in formidable packs, and still cause much loss by their attacks on cattle, sheep, and horses. As culture increases, wolves become scarce. The wolf was formerly common in Britain, and the Anglo-Saxon name for January, tcolfmonth, is significant of this fact. Places of refuge from wolves were erected for travelers in wild and unpeopled districts, as at Flixton in Yorkshire. King Edgar commuted the punishment of criminals on their producing a certain number of wolves' tongues. Lands in Derbyshire were held on condition of killing wolves. It is not easy to say at what date wolves ceased to exist in England; it was probably about the end of the 15th c., but they continued to commit serious ravages ou flocks, in Scotland, in the end of the 16th c., and the last wolf in Scotland is said to have been killed by sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, in 1680. They existed in Ireland at least as late as 1710.
The American wolves are very similar to those of the old world. They have been described as forming several distinct species, but are by some in one, doubt fully distinguished from the common wolf, and to which the name cams occmlentalls . The fur is thicker, and the form more robust than in the common wolf, the muzzle is less pointed, and the profile not so straight, the legs and ears are shorter, and the tail is more bushy. The GRAY WOLF (canes occidentalts, var.grisea-cabus, or C. griseus)is abundant in the northern parts of North America, except the long-settled districts, from which it has been expelled by man. It is the only kind found in Canada.
A few still remain in the mountainous and wooded parts of New England. Packs of wolves hang around the herds of buffaloes (hisons) on the western prairies, not daring to attack strong animals, but ready to seize any sickly straggler that falls behind the rest. They hunt and run down deer. The gray wolf equals the European species in cunning, and has been known to bite off the cord close to the trigger of a set gun, and afterward to devour in safety the bait placed before the muzzle. It has also. i been known to haul up fishing-lines set in a hole of the ice, and to help itself to the fish. It is frequently taken • by means of pit-falls. Ou the prairies, the kill great numbers of wolves inclosing them in a circle gradually reduced, but originally extending over many miles. A premium of 10 to 20 dollars a head was formerly paid, in some parts of America, for the destruction of wolves, partly by the state, and partly by the county or town, because of their ravages among sheep. The range of the gray wolf extends to the coldest northern regions, as Melville island and Banks's Land. In the northwestern states, the gray wolf gives place to the DUSKY WOLF (canis umbilus of many naturalists); and in the s. is the BLACK WOLF (C. ater or lycaon) while on the upper parts of the Missouri, the Ilium WOLF appears, and the RUFOUS WOLF in Texas. They differ little in characters and habits from the gray wolf.—The Pluton:WOLF (C. latrans or lyciscus latrans), the COYOTE of the Mexicans, is a very different animal, more resembling the jackal. It is found from Mexico northward to the Saskatchewan, abounding on the plains of the Missouri. It is 36 to 40 in. long, with a tail of 16 or 18 'the muzzle sharp and fox-like, the ears very large and erect, four toes on each foot, and on the fore feet a sharp claw on the inside, 2 in. above the ground, attached to the rudimentary thumb; the color is usually dull yellowish gray, with black cloudings, the under parts dirty white. It hunts in packs. It is an extremely fleet quadruped, excelling every other in the countries which it inhabits, except the prong-horn. Its voice is a kind of snapping bark. The true wolves never bark, the only sound they emit being a pro and dismal howl.
South America has numerous species of canidee, some of which are known as Aguana wolves, and are nearly allied to the prairie wolf.