and rubs itself against the bars of its cage when noticed. Indeed, the Wolf is by no means so untractable as is frequently supposed; but his temper is rather uncertain, and his destructive habits render him a dangerous pet. A curious instance of combined docility and destructiveness is related by Mr. Lloyd, which, as it also illustrates the cunning of this animal, we adduce here. Mr. Lloyd says--“I once had serious thoughts of training a fine female Wolf in my possession as a pointer; but was deterred, owing to the _penchant_ she exhibited for the neighbours’ pigs. She was chained in a little enclosure, just in front of my window, into which those animals, when the gate happened to be left open, ordinarily found their way. The devices the Wolf employed to get them in her power, were very amusing. When she saw a pig in the vicinity of her kennel, she, evidently with the purpose of putting him off his guard, would throw herself on her side or back, wag her tail most lovingly, and look innocence personified. And this amiable demeanour would continue until the grunter was beguiled within the length of her tether, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the prey was clutched.” The Wolf is sometimes affected with madness, in symptoms and consequences exactly similar to that which affects the dog; but this disease, as it generally happens in the depth of winter, cannot be attributed to the great heat of the dog-days. In the northern parts of the world, wolves are said, frequently, in the spring, to get upon the fields of ice adjoining the sea, for the purpose of preying upon the young seals, which they there find asleep; but vast pieces of the ice occasionally detaching themselves from the mass, they are carried with them to a great distance from the land, where they perish amidst the most hideous and dreadful howling. The language of the poet is beautifully descriptive of this creature’s insatiable fury:-- “By wintry famine roused, from all the tract Of horrid mountains, which the shining Alps, And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees, Branch out, stupendous, into distant lands, Cruel as death! and hungry as the grave! Burning for blood! bony, and gaunt, and grim! Assembling Wolves, in raging troops, descend; And, pouring o’er the country, bear along, Keen as the north wind sweeps the glossy snow: All is their prize.” [Illustration: THE JACKAL, (_Canis Aureus_,)]