The St. Johns herald., 1898-04-23
THE WILD DOGS.
More Dreaded Than Panther
 OF Wolf.

The following article is from the Detroit Free Press. It is accompanied by an illustration Of an animal not des. crlbed in any work on natural history, and never seen outside of nightmare. The article bears the ear marks of Mir. c. 5. Lewis, the author of the ArIzona a Kicker Sketches.
 Ranging through that section of the United States where New Mexico and Arizona meet, are bands of wild animals whose bite is more to be dreaded than that of the centipt de, and is as fatal as the venom of the rattlesnake They are known as the wild dogs of Arizona and so bold have they become that tn hc residents round about the field of their operations are organizing to | hunt them down.
 These brutes form species by themselves and no natural history tells of them Indeed, the accompanying illusra ion will indicate their | appearance to most people for the first time. Their oTgn is not positive known, but they are supy o>ed to be cross between a comb; nat- ion of Siberian bloodhound and bulldog sto k. and the large timber wolf of Arizona. The first of thes0 was taken into New Mexico by cattle men resident there, nbout 15 years ago.
 It was not very long after that when the first of the pres nt specie of animals that is n " creating so much trouble was seen, and for a time their depredations were sl ght Timber wolves were not overplenty in Arizona, and while occasionally sheep, colt, horse or steer would be pulled down by the brutes there was no attempt to exterminate them, beyond taking a shot at one of the depredators whenever op. portunity offered
 In these days, however, their short barks and lonr, dismal howls or rCars, som etfing like coyote howl intensified many times, are b m ing altogether too familiar. The noise they make is feaTsome iudeed--far more so than the scream of ihe panther Or the wall of the th TO- ughbred wolf. None lave ever been captured, and DO one wa ts to capture them for their ap- pearance is vety largely as ugly as their bite A full grown animal of this sort will weigh about one hundred pounds, and stands from two and half to three feet high They are heaviest about the shoulders and neck, have round shaped head and short. sharp ears.
 The general color of their coat is gray, but long blackish hairs come struggling through, giving disagreeable appearance Occasionally one of them will be of different color still and perhaps of fairly good appearance, but this is supposed to result from the breeding i'll of dOm- est!c dogs, who have been known to desert the ranches and join one ofthese bands
 The cattle, calves, horses and colts, which meet death through these animals are by no means killed by them because food is needed, but die from the eff cts of the bite which in every case produces symptoms exactly similar strychnine poisoning Benjamin Brown of Nutrioso Arrz has perhaps killed more of these animals than any other person, and he regards the task of hunting hem as dangerous in the extreme. While they have nev' r been known to wantonly attack human being, they will de- fend themselves against one quick enough
 MT. Brown tells one instance where a caf belonging to Pollard Pearso. of Nutrioso was bitten by one of these wolf-dogs The bite was not a serious one and the calf fled to it's mother for protection The mother licked the wound and in flew moments the calf was apparently all right again. Two days latter the calf died with every symptom of strychnine poisoning and the following day the mother met similar fate