As the wolf is a native of cold climates, he must have passed northerly
into America, since he is met with in both continents. We have spoken
of the black and grey wolf of North America. It appears that this
species is dispersed as far as New Spain and Mexico; and that in this
warm climate it has undergone many varieties, without having changed
either its disposition or nature, for the Mexican wolf has the same
figure, appetites, and habitudes, as the European or North American
wolf, and they all seem to be of the same species. The wolf of Mexico,
or rather of New Spain, where he is much oftener found than in Mexico,
has five toes on his fore-feet, and four on those behind. The ears are
long and straight, and the eyes sparkling, like our wolves; but the
head is larger, the neck thicker, and the tail not so bushy. Above
the mouth there are some thick bristles, as large, but not so stiff
as those of the hedge-hog. The body is covered with greyish hair,
marked with some yellow spots. The head is of the same colour as
the body, crossed with brown stripes, and the forehead adorned with
sallow-coloured spots. The ears are grey, like the head and body.
There is a long yellow spot on the neck, a second on the breast, and
a third on the belly. The flank is marked with transverse bands from
the back to the belly. The tail is grey with a yellow spot in the
middle. The legs are striped from top to bottom with grey and brown.
This wolf is the most beautiful of the kind, and its fur ought to be
valued for its variety of colours.[AF] But in other respects there is
not the least indication of its being a different species from the
common wolves, which vary in colour from grey to white, and from white
to black, without changing the species; and we see, by the testimony of
Fernandes, that these wolves of New Spain vary like the European wolf,
since even in that country they are not all marked agreeable to the
above description, some being found of an uniform colour, and even all
white.
[Footnote AF: It might have been suspected, from its variety of colours,
that this Mexican wolf is a lynx, which species, as well as the wolf,
is found in both continents. But it is sufficient to cast one's eyes
on the figure which Recchi has given, to discover that it resembles
totally the wolf and not at all the lynx.]