Coyote 807 



The Coyote is less shy and cunning than the Gray-wolf. 

 I find the following characteristic note in my New Mexico 

 Journal: 



"Clayton, December 14, 1893. This morning I found that 

 a small Gray-wolf had run my drag till he came to the first 

 trap; there he turned aside, passing three cheese baits. A 

 second very large Gray-wolf struck the drag just before the 

 second traps. He passed them unhurt, then came to a cheese 

 bait, urinated on it, and had then left the drag altogether. 

 A Coyote that was following him on the chance of pickings, 

 came on the bait and was kept from it by the treatment the 

 Wolf had given it, but went on a mile and a half, picked 

 up a poisoned cheese bait, and then half a mile farther got 

 caught in the next trap, where I found him stark and 

 dead." 



It takes a wonderfully good dog to kill a Wolf. Yet I 

 knew a collie, 'Old Frank,' the property of my neighbour, 

 John Thompson, of Carberry, Man., that had several times run 

 down and killed Coyotes single-handed. I saw him actually 

 perform this feat in the November of 1882. The Wolf faced 

 him again and again, but he managed each time to escape 

 serious injury from its jaws, and when the Wolf turned to fly 

 he would snap at its rear. On skinning the Wolf I found that 

 the dog's teeth had sunk deep into the Wolf's flesh each time, 

 so that its hind-legs were disabled. This Wolf, however, died 

 gamely fighting. 



In my early days I caught a great many Wolves in traps — 

 many scores, if not hundreds — and I found great diversity of 

 behaviour among them at this trying time. Some were utterly 

 cowed, and submitted to the death penalty in sullen silence, 

 others struggled to escape, some yelled defiance, and not a few 

 barked and growled savagely, trying to reach me, raging and 

 defiant to the end. 



I have often known a Coyote to tempt a dog to chase him, 

 then, at a safe distance from the dog's human backers, turn on 

 him and drive him back with noisy demonstrations that looked 

 like a wild practical joke. 



