AGE 



804 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



George H. Measham writes me from Shoal Lake in 

 December, 1899: "Wolves are on the increase and becoming 

 a regular pest. Many people have abandoned keeping sheep 

 on their account. Although a bounty of $2 is paid for them, 

 they manage to keep out of danger in a way only equalled by 

 themselves." 



STOR- Like many others of the family, the Coyote has the frugal 



habit of storing food for future use; whether it can thus 

 effectually hide it from plunderers, or whether indeed it always 

 remembers the spot afterwards I cannot determine, though I 

 think it unlikely that an animal with its high mentality, its 

 sense of locality and fine nose, could fail of going to the spot 

 at will. 



The following incident witnessed by A. S. Barton is a 

 good illustration of the storage habit. 



" I was mowing hay in my coulee, when I noticed, some 

 distance away, a Coyote carrying something in his mouth. 

 He trotted down the hill and with some difficulty through the 

 long grass, but presently stopped and began to bury his booty 

 in a mole-heap, covering it with his nose, as a dog does. On 

 my approach he decamped and watched my proceedings from 

 the nearest hill, and, curious to know what he had been burying, 

 I unearthed his cache, and found, to my surprise, a fine turkey 

 gobbler, still warm and uninjured, except that its neck was 

 broken. I had no time and less inclination to advertise for an 

 owner, but accepted 'the goods the gods gave' and carried my 

 prize home. Our next Sunday dinner was much appreciated, 

 and we cheerfully drank the health of the purveyor, and of my 

 unknown neighbour also." 



oMNiv- While a hunter by profession and by choice, there is 



OROUS • • , . 



nothing in the way offish, flesh, or fowl, ancient or modern, that 

 the Coyote disdains for food. In the South-western States it 

 has gone farther, developing there the watermelon habit, and 

 I was not surprised to find it a fruit-eater in the far North- 

 west. 



