792 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



desert, Ishmaelites living by their wits. Further, they are 

 ahke in their vocal gifts — our Ishmaelite is also a Troubadour. 

 The first of the Coyotes to be discovered was of course the 

 one that is found farthest East. It happens also to be the 

 largest. This is latrans, 'the barker,' so called by Say, because 

 it was the only known species of wild Dog that habitually 

 barked. 



Its range, so far as known, is set forth on Map No. 43, 

 though I suspect it goes much farther north-westward than 

 the lines would indicate. 



The spot near the Alaskan Boundary marks a new record. 

 In 1907, Madison Grant secured a complete skin and skeleton 

 of a Coyote killed near Whitehorse on Alsek River, Alaska, in 

 February of that year. Dr. J. A. Allen examined the specimen 

 and found it closely related to lestes.* 



In general, it prefers the untimbered portions of the north 

 temperate regions, but the Prairie-wolf is far from confining 

 itself to the open country. The woods from Pembina to 

 Riding Mountain, as well as immediately east of Winnipeg, 

 is well supplied with the species. I found it abundant about 

 Lake Winnipegosis even on the east side of the water, even 

 where fully 100 miles in direct line from open country. And 

 north-westerly its range extends into the forest 500 miles to 

 Great Slave Lake. It is never found, so far as I can learn, in 

 the north-eastern or coniferous region of Manitoba, but it is 

 more or less plentiful in all the south-western half of the 

 Province. 



HOME- So much for the range of the species. The range of the 



individual is less easy to establish. How large is the home- 

 range of a Coyote, or rather, a pair of Coyotes ? For we shall 

 see that this interesting little brute is highly moral as well as 

 clever. I should think, notwithstanding the popular notion of 

 the Coyote as a world-wanderer, that its home-range is much 

 less than 10 miles across. After consulting many hunters and 



'Bull. .\m. Mus. \. 11., Vc.l. XXIV, pp. 584-6, September 11, 1908. 



RANGE 



