The Wolf 345 



Moldavia from the Buckowina, was besieged in a half- 

 ruined chalet with his companions, and the pack continued 

 their attack all night, and lost heavily. 



The coyote, — Canis latrans, — that thieving creature 

 which is often found intermingled with the gray and other 

 coated wolves on the great plains of North America, has 

 been by some writers — Colonel Dodge, for example — 

 discriminated from the prairie wolf as a separate species. 

 Those differences which exist between them, however, 

 have little classificatory value. Contrasts in size, dissimi- 

 larities in color, marking, and the growth of hair, are all 

 seen in the common wolf, of which this is "a distinct but 

 allied species," with northern and southern varieties. 



" There is," says Schoolcraft, " something doleful as 

 well as terrific in the howling of wolves." When people 

 speak of the jackal's howl, they commonly call it "un- 

 earthly," but a coyote's voice is much more singularly 

 diabolical, and his intonations are so hideously suggestive 

 of all that is wierd and devilish, that it stands by itself 

 among natural sounds, and cannot be compared with the 

 outcry of any other creature. Murphy describes it as 

 follows: "The voice seems to be a combination of the 

 long howl of the wolf and the yelp of the fox ; but so dis- 

 tinctly marked is it from either, that, once heard, it is 

 never forgotten. The coyote has the strange peculiarity 

 of making the utterance of one sound like that of many ; 

 and should two or three try their larynxes at the same time, 

 persons would fancy that a large pack was giving tongue 

 in chorus. The cry appears to be divided into two parts. 

 It first begins with a deep, long howl, then runs rapidly 



