Character guide

Raggylug

major

Also known as Rag, VII Rag, poor little Rag, Unhappy Rag, Raggylug

Raggylug grows up hidden in Olifant's Swamp under his mother's patient instruction, where every sound, scent, and whisker-touch carries meaning. His torn ear is a permanent reminder of how narrowly curiosity can miss disaster. His education in survival — what to fear, when to freeze, how to read the grass — anchors the story's early arc, making his small world feel as perilous and strategic as any wilderness epic.

Lobo

major

Also known as Old Lobo

Lobo leads his pack across the Currumpaw range as a near-mythic adversary, his raids so precise that ranchmen speak of him with grudging awe. His loyalty to his mate Blanca is the one softness in an otherwise ruthless nature, and it becomes the fault line his hunters learn to exploit. Seton presents him not as vermin but as a personality with a view of life, and that framing gives the story its moral weight.

Redruff

major

Also known as poor Redruff

Redruff grows from a chick hidden in the underbrush to a proud, drumming cock, his survival a daily negotiation with predators and weather. His mother's lessons and his own instincts shape a bird who is both wary and magnificent, and the encroachment of human hunters adds a persistent dread. His story traces the full arc of a wild creature's life, making the forest feel intimate and the losses feel personal.

Wully

major

Also known as the Cheviots little Wully, Faithful Wully, Yaller Dog Wully

Wully begins as a bright, loyal sheepdog, devoted to the drunken shepherd Robin who barely deserves his worship, and trusted to guard the flock alone through the night. Seton frames him as nature's mongrel — shrewd, hardy, and closer to the jackal than any thoroughbred — and warns that cruelty or long adversity can twist that wildness into treachery. His story asks whether the dog who turns on his own is a monster or a mirror, and the question lingers.

Bingo

major

Also known as Poor Bingo, III Bingo

Bingo attaches himself to the De Winton Farm with an intensity that borders on ownership, trotting beside the horses by day and sleeping at the stable door by night. His refusal to follow the team one morning, and the death dirge he howls after it, becomes the story's eerie center — an omen the narrator cannot shake. Through Bingo, Seton explores the hidden loyalties and half-wild intelligence of a dog whose inner life no human fully reads.

Silverspot

major

Also known as Old Silverspot, old Silverspot, the everwise Silverspot

Silverspot commands his band of crows through the seasons, teaching them the routes, dangers, and tricks of a landscape thick with hawks, kingbirds, and men. He keeps a private hoard of pebbles, shells, and a china cup handle, and when the narrator finds it, Silverspot silently moves the whole collection rather than lose it. His clever recovery of a dropped piece of bread from a sewer tunnel shows a mind that Seton presents as genuinely individual, not merely instinctive.

Vix

major

Also known as Old Vix, old Vix, Vixen, old Vixen

Vixen shares the woods and barnyard with her mate Scarface, raising four cubs in a hidden den while the narrator watches from a hollow basswood tree. Her world is defined by the constant tension between maternal devotion and the relentless pursuit of men and dogs who consider her a pest. Her patient teaching of the young foxes — freezing, hiding, and reading the land — anchors the story's early arc and makes the coming hunt feel personal.

The Pacing Mustang

major

Also known as The Mustang, the Black Mustang, the Great Black Mustang, the Stallion, the Black Stallion, the Black, the foaming Black

Among the wild mustang bands near Antelope Springs, this black yearling grows into a legendary horse whose smooth pace and untouchable freedom make him a prize and an obsession. Cowboys shoot mustangs on sight as worthless vermin, yet something about the Pacer's speed and refusal to be broken turns him into a symbol of everything wild that men cannot own. His defiance drives the story's central chase and gives the collection its most haunting meditation on freedom.

Joe Calone

supporting

Also known as Calone, Jo Calone, Jo, Wild Jo Calone, Wild Jo, V Wild Jo

Jo Calone rides the Perico range for twenty-five dollars a month, dreaming of a ranch and an outfit of his own while his brand, the hogpen, sits on a single old cow. He knows bronks down to subsoil and swears a black one is the hardest of all, yet the pacing mustang lodges in his mind as the strike that could change his luck. His pursuit of the Pacer turns a cowboy's idle ambition into the engine of the story's middle act.

Molly Cottontail

supporting

Also known as Molly, the Cottontail, Poor little Molly, little Molly, Poor little Molly Cottontail

Molly Cottontail raises Rag in a world where every creature is a potential enemy and stillness is the first law of survival. She passes down the old secret of the Brierbrush, the thorny ally that shelters rabbits because they alone among the beasts have never harmed its roses. Her patient instruction shapes Rag's early education and gives the story its tender, practical heart.

Old Turkeytrack

supporting

Also known as Old Tom Turkeytrack, Turkeytrack, old Turkeytrack, old Tom, Old Tom, Tom, VI Old Turkeytrack

Old Turkeytrack is the fox who watches the narrator from behind, grinning on his haunches after a trick has failed, and who curls up among gray boulders so perfectly that only the wind on his fur betrays him. He and his wife Vixen make the woods their home and the barnyard their base of supplies, matching human cunning with something older and quieter. His escapes establish the fox family as worthy adversaries and set the stakes for the hunts that follow.

Scarface

supporting

Also known as old Scarface, Old Scarface, Formerly old Scarface

Scarface shares the woods with his wife Vixen and their four cubs, denning in a hidden tunnel and treating the barnyard as a pantry. He is a true hunter who conceals his awareness the moment he is seen, then circles behind to watch his pursuer's stillborn trick with obvious amusement. His uncanny camouflage and cool nerve make him the collection's sharpest portrait of animal intelligence, and his family's fate gives the early arc its emotional weight.

Blanca

supporting

Also known as poor Blanca

Lobo's white-coated mate, whose beauty and constancy make her the tender center of a wolf pack hunted across the Currumpaw.

Brownie

supporting

Also known as the Brownie, little Brownie

A fox cub learning the prairie's harsh lessons, caught between a mother's patient teaching and a world of traps and guns.

Ranger

supporting

Also known as old Ranger

The narrator's seasoned hunting dog, steady in the field and quietly essential to every pursuit Seton undertakes.

Huldah

supporting

An old woman of the woods whose long memory of animals and men makes her the quiet authority on wild lives.

Cuddy

supporting

Also known as old Cuddy, III Cuddy

A Manitoba farmer whose livelihood rests on his sheepdog Wully, and whose trust will be tested by what the dog becomes.

Gordon Wright

supporting

Also known as old Gordon, Wright, Gordon, little Gordon

A boy whose bond with the dog Bingo turns a stray into a companion, and whose faith in that loyalty shapes the story's heart.

Mother Partridge

supporting

Also known as Partridge, the Mother Partridge, Mother

Mother Partridge moves through the woods as a strategist of small lives, circling wide to shake off pursuit before returning to the exact grass-blade where her brood waits in perfect stillness. Her authority is quiet but absolute: a single 'K-reet!' summons every hidden fuzz-ball, and her fantail becomes a moving roof against the sun. She teaches by example — drinking, giving thanks, raking open an anthill — and her patient instruction turns a clutch of helpless thimblefuls into a flock that can feed itself.

Graytail

minor

A gray squirrel who lives in the woods and gathers food.

Reynard

minor

A name used for a clever fox in local tales.

Chuck

minor

Also known as Charley

A young boy who observes the crow Silverspot.

Dorley

minor

A hunter who tracks the fox Old Turkeytrack.

Robin

minor

A red-breasted bird who lives near the narrator's home.

Oliver

minor

A young boy who helps care for the orphaned fox cubs.

Runtie

minor

Also known as the Runtie

The smallest and weakest of a litter of fox cubs.

Tip

minor

Also known as V Tip, little Tip

A young fox cub who is playful and curious.

Jo Greatorex

minor

Also known as Jo

A rancher who helps hunt the wolf Lobo.

Old Olifant

minor

Also known as Olifant, VIII Old Olifant

An old hunter who knows the ways of the forest animals.

Frank

minor

A young boy who observes wildlife near his home.

Spot

minor

A dog who helps hunt foxes in the Springfield area.

Foster

minor

A farmer who owns land where the grouse Redruff lives.

Tannerey

minor

A hunter who pursues the pacing mustang.

Jack Burns

minor

Also known as Burns, Jack

A cowboy who attempts to capture the pacing mustang.

Bing

minor

A loyal and brave dog who protects his master's sheep.

Mr. Thomas Bates

minor

Also known as Bates, Tom, old Bates

A farmer who owns the sheepdog Wully for a time.

Fred

minor

A young boy who helps with farm chores and animals.

Horseshoe Billy

minor

Also known as Bill, Billy

A ranch hand who works with horses and cattle.

Scarth

minor

A hunter who tries to trap the fox Old Turkeytrack.

Dunne

minor

A farmer who loses sheep to the wolf Lobo.

Curley

minor

A dog who helps hunt the wolf pack.

Paddy

minor

Also known as Pat

A farmhand who works with the sheepdog Wully.

Mother Grouse

minor

A mother grouse who protects her chicks from predators.

Mammy

minor

An older woman who lives on the farm and cares for animals.