Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/226

204 could be used only by the wealthy in such an extravagant way as scent: hence only

In All's Well that Ends Well, Act v., Scene 2, the Civet is called a "musk-cat."

There are few animals that have got a worse name, and perhaps deservedly so, than the Wolf. Individually it is one of the most cowardly of animals, but collectively it proves one of the most dangerous among wild animals; in fact, I believe a hunter would run a greater risk of "getting the worst of it" from a pack of hungry wolves—and wolves are always hungry—than from a troop of lions. The latter may be easily avoided unless the hunter courts a fight; but not so with the wolves. Keen-sighted and remarkably fleet of foot, they at once commence the attack, not always openly, but generally so. In Newfoundland I have known them display considerable strategy in the capture of the Cariboo (Rangifer caribou). In autumn, when the hills are covered with snow, the deer come down to feed in the marshes, many of which, although of considerable extent, are surrounded by belts of conifers, chiefly the black spruce (Abies nigra), through which the deer have well-known and well-trodden paths. In the leeward paths some of the wolves hide themselves, while others run round to windward of the deer, which is generally sufficient to start a whole herd to leeward at full speed, and consequently right into the jaws of the secreted wolves. The settlers affirm that the wolves generally adopt this easy manner of hunting the Cariboo just after the bucks have shed their horns. On one occasion I measured the "strides" of a couple of wolves that had passed close by the door of my house during the night in chase of a Cariboo stag, and found them to be from sixteen to eighteen feet! Imagine clearing the locks of a canal, barge, bargemen and all at every stride, and going at racing speed.

Well does Shakspeare bring out the true character of the wolf when he makes Antonio say:—

"I pray you, think you question with the Jew: You may as well go stand upon the beach,