800 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



squirrels, Mice, Rabbits, frogs, snakes, eggs, and fledgling 

 birds are on its bill-of-fare, and the hen-yards as well as the 

 sheep-folds are levied on in times of need. 



HABITS Mary Austin gives an admirable picture of a prowling 



Coyote in her "Land of Little Rain":" "Watch a Coyote 

 come out of his lair," she says, "and cast about in his mind 

 where he will go for his daily killing. You cannot very well tell 

 what decides him, but very easily that he has decided. He 

 trots or breaks into short gallops, with very perceptible pauses 

 to look up and about at landmarks, alters his tack a little, 

 looking forward and back to steer his proper course. 



" I am persuaded that the Coyotes in my valley, which 

 is narrow and beset with steep sharp hills, in long passages, 

 steer by the pinnacles of the skyline, going with head cocked 

 to one side to keep to the left or right of such and such a 

 promontory. 



"I have trailed a Coyote often, going across country, 

 perhaps to where some slant-winged scavenger hanging in the 

 air signalled prospect of a dinner, and found his track such as 

 a man, a very intelligent man accustomed to hill country, and 

 a little cautious, would make to the same point. Here a detour 

 to avoid a stretch of too little cover, there a pause on the rim of 

 a gully to pick the better way — and it is usually the best way — 

 and making his point with the greatest economy of effort." 



cuN- The Prairie-hare and others of the Plains beasts often find 



safety in superior fleetness when pursued by the Coyote. But 

 the latter sometimes succeeds by cunning, when all its strength 

 and speed might fail, as the following instances show: 



John B. Goff, the hunter, tells me that while freighting 

 between Rifle and Rawlins, Colo., some years ago, he saw 

 2 Coyotes chasing an Antelope. They worked a distance apart, 

 keeping the Antelope running zigzag between them, so that it 

 really did four times the running of either. It was nearly 

 exhausted and ran up to his horses for protection. The 

 » 1904, pp. 30-31. 



