MAMMALS CANID.E UANIS LATRANS. 51 



more striking and unquestionable evidence of relationship by direct descent 

 of some Indian dogs from the Coyote. In the first place, we should note that 

 the habitual antagonism of these dogs and the Coyotes is nothing but the 

 animosity all dogs show to strangers of their own kind, an aversion probably 

 rooted in jealousy, which is a strong canine trait. Next, we continually find 

 dogs of both sexes on the frontier deserting their haunts at particular 

 (sexual) periods ; and if the occurrence of a feral wolf-dog (Coyotd 9 and 

 dog c? ) has not been recorded, there are numerous cases of the production 

 of the same (from Coyote" $ and dog 9) in domestication. I have, finally, 

 information which I consider perfectly satisfactory, in still stronger evidence 

 of the readiness with which the two animals interbreed. 



" Indians not unfrequently bring it about themselves ; on suitable occa- 

 sions, they picket out their 9 dogs over night to procure the cross, with con- 

 stant success. What profitable quality is secured, I do not know; but such 

 is the case. 



"These crosses are not known to be otherwise than fertile; and the 

 result is, in every Indian community there are mongrel dogs shading into 

 Coyote's in every degree ; all having the clear wolf-strain, and some being 

 scarcely distinguishable from a prairie-wolf. 



" The matter of color merits passing mention. The Coyote" is as constant 

 in this respect as other Ferce, and I think its peculiar coloring can be rea- 

 sonably traced in certain dogs. The animal is dingy white as a ground- 

 color, which remains so on all the under parts ; above, it is suffused with 

 tawny brown (bright in summer, paler and more grayish, or quite gray, 

 in winter). This color is overlaid with a clouding of black. This black is 

 rarely uniformly distributed ; it tends to streakiness along the back and 

 across the shoulders and hips, producing a pattern similar to that of a 

 " brindled " bull-dog. But there is a more striking feature, and one very 

 characteristic of the animal (the brindled gray and black being shared ex- 

 actly by an ordinary strain of G. lupus}. The top of the muzzle, back of 

 the ears, and outside of both fore and hind legs are usually nearly uniformly 

 tawny. This shade is precisely the so-called " tan " of the black-and-tan 

 terrier, and has the same general distribution. In an attempt to trace pedi- 

 gree, a fact of this sort seems to rank in value with the appearance, in a 

 horse or mule, of the stripes of a quagga-stock." (Am. Nat., 1873, 385.) 



