346 Wild Beasts 



up into a series of barks, and terminates in a high scream, 

 issued in prolonged jerks." According to conventional 

 opinions, elephants among wild animals, and dogs among 

 those that have been domesticated, occupy the highest 

 places in order of intelligence. The author does not be- 

 lieve this to be the case with respect to the first named 

 species, and so far as pure intellect goes "Die reinen Ver- 

 nunft," no dog can probably surpass Canis latrans. Pro- 

 fessor Huxley also reports that he can find no essential 

 difference between their skulls. While these animals 

 may be equal, however, in absolute capacity, the coyote, 

 considered according to civilized standards of manners, is 

 the kind of creature that if any dog were to take after, 

 he would be incontinently shot or hanged. 



His idea of good conduct is to get what he can honestly 

 procure when driven to straightforward courses, but by 

 preference to steal it, as being less troublesome. He is 

 astute beyond comparison in nefarious practices, and has 

 sense enough to howl with derision (as he sometirnes 

 seems to do) if it could be explained to him that man- 

 kind were capable of judging his behavior according to 

 any other rule of life than his own. Homo sapiens, in 

 a highly evolved state, is imbued with the truly noble 

 idea that he is the centre of creation, and that all liv- 

 ing things are admirable in proportion as they approach 

 himself. He calls the coyote a "miserable cur," "a 

 barking thief," and says sarcastically that the brute 

 has kleptomania. Savage man, on the contrary, esteems 

 him greatly. The two are much alike in many respects. 

 We have already seen that this little wolf has been 



