THE HOUND OF THE PLAINS. 36 1 



ranks as earliest progenitor ; he becomes the center of myths, and 

 finally is apotheosized. 



Our coyote is a true Westerner, and typifies the independence, the 

 unrestrained gayety and brisk zeal which enter into the heart of him 

 who sights the Rocky Mountains. He is little known at present east- 

 ward of real bunch-grass plains. In early days, however, he was com- 

 mon enough in the open country of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and 

 northward, whence he received the name " prairie-wolf." Threading 

 the passes, he wanders among the foot-hills of all the complicated 

 mountain system that forms the " crest of the continent," and dwells 

 plentifully in California valleys. 



In the United States and British America, then, he is a creature of 

 the open country, leaving high mountains and forests to the large, gray 

 " mountain " or " timber " wolf ( Canis lupus). Perhaps this is less his 

 choice than his necessity, for in Mexico and Central America he seeks 

 his food more often in forests than elsewhere, yet keeps his character- 

 istic cunning and cowardice, becoming there a wild dog of the jungles, 

 as, in the north, he is the hound of the plains. It is that tropical 

 region, in fact, which gives us his name, for coyote is a pure Nahuatl 

 word, wdth the final e softened into an eh. This ultimate must not be 

 lost sight of in the pronunciation, which is coy-6-te, not ki-yot (or even 

 kyoodle!), as often heard. Dr. D. G. Brinton writes me that the deri- 

 vation seems to be from the root coy, w r hich means a hole, and alludes 

 to the earth-burrowing habits of the animal. I have met with a word 

 of very similar sound, in a Californian language, said to mean " hill- 

 dog." 



"When this wolf can not find a natural hollow to suit him, nor evict 

 some unhappy hare, prairie-dog, or badger, he digs for himself a dry 

 burrow, or perhaps a den among loose rocks. The butte districts of 

 the upper Missouri and the lower Colorado valleys are, therefore, his 

 strongholds. There the decay of sandstone strata, or the breakage 

 due to volcanic eruptions and upheavals, give him the choice of a large 

 number of crannies, while the desolation and remoteness of wide 

 tracts, untenanted by men, afford him the seclusion he loves. 



In such seclusion his young family of five to eight pups is brought 

 forth during the latter part of spring, the date ranging earlier or later 

 with the latitude, and the consequently varying advance of warm 

 weather. It is during the weeks going just before and following 

 immediately after the birth of the puppies that the old dog-coyotes 

 work their hardest and most systematically. In hunting at this time, 

 our wolf adds to his ordinary pertinacity and zeal, the sagacity and 

 endurance necessary to turn his victims and drive them back as near 

 as possible to his home, knowing that otherwise his mate and her 

 weaklings will be unable to partake of the feast. 



A remarkable picture of this was given some years ago, by a writer 

 in an English magazine, who, in one of the best " animal chapters " it 



