“That Edgar failed in his attempts at extirpation is manifest from a mandamus of Edward I., to all bailiffs &c., to give their assistance to his faithful and beloved Peter Corbet, whom the king had enjoined to take and destroy Wolves ... in all forests and parks and other places in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop, where they could be found.... Even so late as 1577, the flocks of Scotland appear to have suffered from the ravages of Wolves, which do not seem to have been rooted out of that portion of the kingdom till about the year 1680, when Sir Ewen Cameron’s hand laid the last Wolf low. In Ireland, Wolves must have lingered as late as the year 1710; about which time the last presentment for killing them in the county of Cork was made.”
The Wolf is about the size of a large Shepherd’s Dog, measuring some five feet from snout to tip of tail: of this length about twenty inches are taken up by the tail. The height at the shoulders is about thirty-two inches. The skin is of a dark yellowish-grey colour, or sometimes almost black; the hair is long and coarse in the northern varieties, which have to sustain existence through a long, cold winter, and shorter in the southern kinds, which enjoy a warmer climate. There is also a good deal of variation in colour, according to the country from which the animal comes.
The muzzle has much the same shape as that of many Shepherd’s Dogs, but the ears are very upright and pointed, and the eyes are set obliquely; in this respect the difference between a Wolf and a Dog is very striking—the obliquity of the eye in the former gives him a most sinister expression. The pupil of the eye is round. The bushy tail, too, is not curled up like a Dog’s, but held down, almost between the hind legs. But perhaps the most striking difference from the Dog is in the voice; the Wolf never barks—that is entirely a civilised habit: even Dogs allowed to become wild lose it—but howls in a horrible and ghastly manner.
The Wolf usually lives in solitary places in mountains; but in Spain he is said sometimes to make his lair in corn-fields, in close proximity to inhabited dwellings. Here he lives with his wife and family, usually caché during the day, and issuing forth at night to take his prey. During the warmer periods of the year Wolves, as a rule, hunt each one for himself, but in the winter they often unite into great packs, and pursue their prey over the snow at a rapid pace and with indomitable perseverance. Swift and untiring must be the animal which, on an open plain, can escape from them; even the Horse, perfectly constructed as he is for rapid running, is almost certain to succumb, unless he can reach a village before his pace begins to flag. They never spring upon an animal from an ambush—the nearest approach ever made to such a mode of attack being their practice of attacking sheepfolds by leaping into the midst of the flock and killing right and left; when they reach their prey, too, the first onslaught is made with the teeth, and never by a blow of the paw. Thus, a Wolf’s attack—like that of all members of the genus Canis—is entirely different from a Cat’s. The Cat lies in ambush all alone, springs upon the passing prey, which, if he misses he scarcely ever pursues, and kills by a blow of the paw. The Dog and Wolf attack openly, sometimes alone, but oftener in company, pursue their prey with unflagging energy until it falls a victim, and give the death-wound at once with their teeth. To shepherds the Wolf is, and has been from the earliest times, a most unmitigated curse. A single Wolf will leap the wall of a sheepfold and murder perhaps a quarter or a third of the flock before his lust of slaughter is satisfied. Of course, he cannot eat more than one, or part of one, and the others he slays from wanton cruelty. Mutton is naturally his standing dish, as it can be procured, if at all, in abundance, and with comparatively little difficulty; but he is not at all particular, and will eat Deer, Goats, Birds, and even Reptiles. But his favourite meat, curious to relate, is Dog, and there are many instances related of the eagerness and recklessness shown by Wolves to obtain this cannibal feast. “Wolves have been known to carry off a Pointer from a sledge going at full gallop. The animal leaps with a single bound amongst the three or four persons in the vehicle, who remain stupefied at so much audacity, seizes his innocent victim, and plunges again into the forest. The whole is done in less time than it takes to tell. Another time, it is a young Newfoundland, which his master, travelling on horseback, has placed before him, on the pommel of his large saddle; the Wolf sees him, leaps upon and seizes him, and carries him off without touching man or horse.”[124]
If the Wolf confined himself to Sheep and Dogs, matters would be bad, indeed, but still endurable; unfortunately, however, this horrible savage likes human flesh just as well as “flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.” A single Wolf hardly ever dares attack a man, for he is essentially a cowardly animal, but a child may be now and then carried off, and a man or a body of men may be attacked by an immense troop of Wolves, and then, unless they can get to a village or some other shelter, their fate is sealed. They may kill the Wolves by dozens, expend all their ammunition, making every shot tell, fell the howling monsters till their swords are hacked like Falstaff’s, but it is all of no avail: each falling Wolf is replaced by a fresh one hungrier and more vigorous than himself, and the end, unless succour come, can only be death by the teeth and a grave in the maw of perhaps hundreds of Wolves. It is related that, in 1812, twenty-four French soldiers were attacked by Wolves, and after a hard fight, were all slain and devoured; their comrades found only the remains of their arms and uniforms, together with a few bones, and the bodies of two or three hundred Wolves who had fallen in the unequal struggle, only to add to their comrades’ banquet.
COMMON WOLF.
The destruction wrought by these animals in countries where they abound is very great. “In 1823, in Livonia, a declaration made to the authorities stated, as having been carried off by Wolves, 15,182 Sheep; 1,807 Oxen; 1,841 Horses; 3,270 Goats; 4,190 Pigs; 703 Dogs; and 1,873 Fowls and Geese.”
The Wolf, savage though he be, is quite tamable; he has often shown great devotion to his master, and has, in fact, behaved in every respect like an affectionate Dog, a very interesting fact, as bearing upon the evolution of Dogs from wild Canidæ.