
Citaat:
The American Wolf of the northern districts is covered with long and comparatively fine fur, mixed with a large quantity of shorter woolly hair, and it has a more robust form than the European Wolf. Its muzzle is thicker and more obtuse, its head larger and rounder, and there is a sensible depression at the union of the nose and forehead. Its more arched forehead is comparatively broad, the space between the ears being greater than their height. The ears are shorter, wider at the base, and more acute, and have, consequently, a more conical form, whilst the greater length of the hair on the side of the neck of this Wolf makes them appear even shorter than they are. Its neck, covered with a bushy fur, appears short and thick. Its legs are rather short, its feet broad, with thick toes, and its tail is bushy, like the brush of a fox.
The European Wolf, on the contrary, has a coarser fur, with less of the soft wool inter- mixed with it. Its head is narrower, and tapers gradually to form the nose, which is produced on the same plane with the forehead. Its ears are higher and somewhat nearer to each other; their length exceeds the distance between the auditory opening and the eye. Its loins are more slender, its legs longer, feet narrower, and its tail is more thinly clothed with fur.
The shorter ears, broader forehead, and thicker muzzle of the American Wolf, with the bushiness of the hair behind the cheek, give it a physiognomy more like the social visage of an Esquimaux dog than the sneaking aspect of an European Wolf. Buffon enumerates black, tawny-gray and white, as the colours exhibited by the fur of the European Wolves. In the American northern Wolves the gray colour predominates, and there is very little of the tawny hue. The general arrangement of the patches of colour is, however, nearly the same in both races.
Laatst bijgewerkt door Wintu op 06-08-25 22:11, in het totaal 1 keer bewerkt