806 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



without any hair on it hid itself under his straw stack, and, 

 although driven away by his dog, it returned and ensconced 

 itself under the granary, where he shot it. It had some disease 

 which had robbed it entirely of its hair, excepting a little patch 

 on the shoulders, and it was trembling with cold. 



Another instance which shows how hard pressed the 

 Coyote is at times by hunger was related to me by another 

 Manitoba resident, Robert McCullough. 



At Carberry one winter's morning he went with a boiler 

 in his hand to get some feed from the driving shed. The 

 door was a little open, and he saw as he approached an animal 

 which dashed about in the gloom of the shed. Its actions 

 showed it to be a wild creature. He ran to the door just in 

 time to prevent its escape. Barring the passage with the boiler, 

 he rushed to the stable and back with a fork. The creature, 

 a Wolf, took refuge under a reaper and there McCullough 

 speared it, but the fork only pierced the loose skin of its 

 belly, and it turned on its enemy, who held the fork to the 

 ground with all his strength, and was barely out of the 

 reach of the Wolf's jaws, for the handle was short, but he 

 dared not withdraw the fork to strike again, and he had nothing 

 to finish the animal with, so it was a deadlock. After a struggle, 

 however, the man got the end of the handle fixed under a 

 beam and rushed off to get a club. On returning, the Wolf was 

 gone, apparently for good. But the next morning it was 

 found within a few yards of the same place, quite dead, for the 

 fork had pierced its bowels. But why should it return to the 

 shed .? 



MEN- The Prairie-wolf is mentally a compound of Fox and 



iTY Wolf. While gifted with a good deal of cunning that is shown 

 in its avoidance of traps and its method of taking its prey, it 

 is also a desperate fighter when at all evenly matched. 



I have more than once seen a Coyote run across an open 

 stretch of black ploughed land, then on a piece of dry yellow 

 grass sink into concealment. It matched it perfectly in col- 

 our, but was probably actuated by the idea that it was cover. 



