[Illustration: _Photo by New York Zoological Society._
The grey wolf of North America, which once preyed mainly on young bison calves, is now a formidable enemy to the increasing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle in the north and west.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green._
Note how the wolf cub develops the long pasterns, large feet, and long jaw before its body grows in proportion]
The tribe now treated is called the Dog Family, and rightly so, for our domestic dogs are included in the group, which comprises the Wolves, Dogs, Jackals, Wild Dogs, and Foxes. Their general characters are too familiar to need description, but it should be noted that the foxes differ from the dogs in having contracting pupils to the eye (which in bright sun closes like a cat's to a mere slit) and some power of climbing. The origin of the domestic dog is still unsettled.
This great enemy of man and his dependants--the creature against the ravages of which almost all the early races of Europe had to combine, either in tribes, villages, or principalities, to protect their children, themselves, and their cattle--was formerly found all over the northern hemisphere, both in the Old and New Worlds. In India it is rather smaller, but equally fierce and cunning, though, as there are no long winters, it does not gather in packs. It is still so common in parts of the Rocky Mountains that the cattle and sheep of the ranch-holders and wild game of the National Yellowstone Park suffer severely. In Switzerland the ancient organisations of wolf clubs in the cantons are still maintained. In Brittany the Grand Louvetier is a government official. Every very hard winter wolves from the Carpathians and Russia move across the frozen rivers of Europe even to the forests of the Ardennes and of Fontainebleau. In Norway they ravage the reindeer herds of the Lapps. Only a few years ago an artist, his wife, and servant were all attacked on their way to Budapest, in Hungary, and the man and his wife killed. The last British wolf was killed in 1680 by Cameron of Lochiel. Wolves are common in Palestine, Persia, and India.
Without going back over the well-known history of the species, we will give some anecdotes of the less commonly known exploits of these fierce and dangerous brutes. Mr. Kipling's "Jungle Book" has given us an "heroic" picture of the life of the Indian wolves. There is a great deal of truth in it. Even the child-stealing by wolves is very probably a fact, for native opinion is unanimous in crediting it. Babies laid down by their mothers when working in the fields are constantly carried off and devoured by them, and stories of their being spared and suckled by the she-wolves are very numerous.