58 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

chosen collection in ‘ Chambers’s Miscellany,’ a work which
ought to be accessible to all young readers.

Canis Lurvs.—The Wolf.

Though nearly allied to the dog, we lose in this animal
all the affectionate and endearing qualities of its domesticated
relative, and though now entirely free from its ravages in
England, it is still the scourge of many of the European
countries during the severe weather, which, by curtailing
the supply of food in the forests, emboldens it to attack tra-
vellers, and prow! about the villages, in large troops, whose
savage ferocity is only equalled by the perseverance with
which they track and follow their victims, whether man,
horses, or sheep.

The first mention of the wolf in the Bible gives the same
idea of stealthy ferocity to its character which it possesses
in the present day. In Genesis xlix. 27, “ Benjamin shall
ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey,
and at night he shall divide the spoil,” intimating that day
and night its delight is to seize and tear its prey; which
agrees with the description given it by travellers, as con-
stantly on the prowl, with apparently an insatiable appe-
tite; most commentators agree in referring the comparison
here made, to the fierce and unjust contest in which the