Entirely dependent upon rapine for his subsistence, the nose of the Wolf is fully equal to that of the sharpest-scented hound. The size and speed of the elk and of the stag are insufficient to protect them from his violence; he pursues them with equal swiftness and cunning, and, when he has succeeded in running them down, finds little difficulty in rendering them his prey. To effect this purpose with the greater certainty he frequently unites himself with a numerous train of his fellows, who are however bound together by no other tie than the common object of their pursuit; and when this is once attained immediately separate and proceed each to his own retreat, whence they again emerge to reunite in the common cause whenever the necessary stimulus is supplied. In inhabited countries he seldom ventures to show himself openly or in packs, but sleeps away the greater part of the day in the shelter of the forest, and only prowls abroad by night when impelled by the cravings of his appetite. The sheep-cote and the farm-yard become then the scenes of his ravages; and such is his ingenuity, and so great the rapidity of his motions, that he will frequently carry off his prey almost before the eyes of the shepherd, although the warning voice of the watchful dog had given timely notice of the approach of the marauder. His ferocity is sometimes carried to such a pitch that he becomes dangerous to man; and when hard pressed by famine, to which in spite of all his skill in the chase and his sagacity in the pursuit of meaner rapine he is by no means a stranger, he will fall at unawares upon the solitary and unprotected traveller, or, prowling about the habitation of the villager, carry off from it his unsuspecting and defenceless children.