1913] Grinnell-Swarth : Birds and Mammals of San Jacinto 371 



Canis ochropus ochropus Eschscholtz 



California Coyote 



Five specimens of coyotes were obtained as follows: Adult 

 female, no. 2303, at Cabezon, May 8 ; juvenal female, no. 4397, 

 at Banning, June 8; immature male, no. 2317, at Hemet Lake, 

 August 10; and juvenal male and female, nos. 2314, 2315, at 

 Dos Palmos Spring, May 30. 



This material is wholly inadequate for specific determination 

 in so difficult a group, especially in view of the intermediate 

 Ideation of the San Jacinto region. The single adult is in worn 

 and faded pelage; its skull shows characters more nearly of 

 C. ochropus than C. cstor, and this in spite of the locality of 

 capture being at the desert base of the mountains where the 

 latter species would be most likely to occur. The example from 

 Hemet Lake is acquiring clean fall pelage and the colors are more 

 deeply fulvous, as in other examples from the San Diegan dis- 

 trict. It is not improbable that all the San Jacinto specimens 

 belong to the small-sized form inhabiting the San Diegan dis- 

 trict, but whether or not such a form is to be properly included 

 under the name ochropus, or provided with a separate name, has 

 not been determined. 



Coyotes, or signs of them, were noted as follows : In the vic- 

 inity of Dos Palmos Spring, several adults were seen, singly; 

 and on May 30 four youngsters were discovered on a sand wash 

 near the mouth of a deep ravine heading among some rocky hills. 

 Two of the animals were playing together, tumbling about and 

 biting one another like puppy dogs. As soon as alarmed they 

 all scurried for the ravine, one whining like a scared pup. The 

 sand flat was plentifully sprinkled with their footprints for at 

 least two acres, showing that it had served for some time as 

 their playground. These youngsters were abroad thus in the 

 open, late in the forenoon. No adults were seen at the time. 



Coyotes were heard howling nightly around Kenworthy., 

 Sign was seen on Thomas Mountain, 6800 feet, the highest place 

 of observed occurrence of this mammal in the region. One was 

 seen in Strawberry Valley, 6000 feet, July 15. 



The stomach of the coyote trapped at Hemet Lake, August 

 10, contained manzanita berries and bones and fur of small 



