Photo by Ottomar Anschütz] [Berlin.
"THE WOLF WITH PRIVY PAW."
The photograph shows admirably the slinking gait and long stride of the wolf.
A number of these Borzoi dogs have been imported into America, and are used to course wolves in the Western States. But there professional wolf-hunters are employed to kill off the creatures near the ranches. One such hunter lives near Colonel Roosevelt's ranche on the Little Missouri. His pack of large dogs will tear in pieces the biggest wolf without aid from the hunter. Of his own efforts in wolf-coursing he writes: "We generally started for the hunting-ground very early, riding across the open country in a widely spread line of dogs and men. If we put up a wolf, we simply went at him as hard as we knew how. Young wolves, or those which had not attained their full strength, were readily overtaken, and the pack would handle a she-wolf quite readily. A big dog-wolf, or even a full-grown and powerful she-wolf, offered an altogether different problem. Frequently we came upon one after it had gorged itself on a colt or a calf. Under such conditions, if the dogs had a good start, they ran into the wolf and held him.... Packs composed of nothing but specially bred and trained greyhounds of great size and power made a better showing. Under favourable circumstances three or four of these dogs readily overtook and killed the largest wolf.... Their dashing courage and ferocious fighting capacity were marvellous, and in this respect I was never able to see much difference between the smooth and rough—the Scotch deerhound or the greyhound type."
Photo by J. W. McLellan] [Highbury.
RUSSIAN WOLF.
This is a most characteristic photograph of one of the so-called "greyhound wolves" of the Russian forests.
Wolf cubs are born in April or May. The litter is from four to nine. There was one of six a few years ago at the Zoological Gardens at the Hague, pretty little creatures like collie puppies, but quarrelsome and rough even in their play. When born, they were covered with reddish-white down; later the coat became woolly and dark.
The European wolf's method of hunting when in chase of deer is by steady pursuit. Its speed is such and its endurance so great that it can overtake any animal. But there is no doubt that the favourite food of the wolf is mutton, which it can always obtain without risk on the wild mountains of the Near East, if once the guardian dogs are avoided. M. Tschudi, the naturalist of the Alps, gives a curious account of the assemblage of wolves in Switzerland in 1799. They had, as is mentioned above, followed the armies from Russia. Having tasted human flesh, they preferred it to all other, and even dug up the corpses. The Austrian, French, and Russian troops penetrated in 1799 into the highest mountain valleys of Switzerland, and fought sanguinary battles there. Hundreds of corpses were left on the mountains and in the forests, which acted as bait to the wolves, which were not destroyed for some years.