80 BULLETIIN NO. VII. 
The coyote is a familiar pest upon the plains of the central 
United States, and is a very persistent, if cowardly neighbor. 
Its food varies with the exigencies of its situation. While it 
prefers live game, and shows much endurance in its pursuit, it 
will not reject offal and the refuse from the campers meals. It 
will follow a party long distances subsisting on what is thrown 
away. When hard pressed, however, it has recourse to vege- 
table substances, such as the fruit of the prickly pear, juniper 
and other berries. The howl is remarkably melancholy, and 
does not tend to enliven the solitude of its domain It consists 
of a short quick bark, followed by others in quick succession 
in ascending gamut, until they are combined in one long drawn 
wail. The clamor is greatest at night-fall and continues 
through the night at intervals, breaking up with a noisy de- 
monstration at daybreak. 
Dr. Coues insists on the close similarity between the coyote 
and the ancestor of the domestic dog. The Indian dog inter- 
breeds freely, it is asserted, with the wild animal and the 
crosses are perfectly fertile. 
The female after a period gestation similar to that of the 
dog brings forth five or six puppies in secluded spots, caverns 
or recesses in the rocks. The only available means of des- 
troying these wolves seems to be poison, as they avoid traps 
sedulously. 
GENUS VULPES. 
The foxes differ from wolves and dogs in their elliptical 
pupil, bushy tail, more slender form, unlobed upper incisors 
and form of the postorbital process. South America furnishes 
a perfect transition in its wolf-like foxes with circular pupils. 
Aside from the Arctic fox which is circumpolar this genus con- 
tains V. velox and V. macrus of the plains (neither of which is 
known from Minnesota) and the red fox. 
Vulpes vulgaris L. 
This familiar animal is distributed over the whole north tem- 
perate region and is everywhere very variable. There is some 
little reason to suppose that the red fox has been introduced into 
this country, if not by man, at least later than the gray fox, 
the bones of which are found abundantly in bone caverns. 
The red fox is about 40 inches long, the tail occupying 18 
inches. Hight 12-14 inches. In the ordinary variety the 
