86 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



interesting than those describing the team and 

 relay hunting of the coyote, especially when ante- 

 lope are the game. Dr. L. E. Hibbard, of Burns, an 

 authority on the wild life of the desert, told me 

 of a hunt of coyotes that he had a hand in, which 

 illustrates not only the cunning of the hunters, 

 but the remarkable love and courage of the 

 mother antelope as well. 



Dr. Hibbard was in the desert for young ante- 

 lope and had been scouring the sage for hours, 

 when, coming up to the edge of a sharp rim rock 

 that dropped into a flat, he looked down upon the 

 thick sage and saw an old doe antelope with three 

 young ones which she was trying to hide. The kids 

 seemed to be about two weeks old old enough 

 to be able to run with the mother, but for 

 some reason she was anxiously trying to conceal 

 them. Then he saw that one of the three was lame 

 and could not run, that this one was perhaps not 

 the mother's own at all, but a motherless cripple 

 that had adopted her or that she had adopted 

 and was trying to rear. Her own two (if these 

 two were hers) could have followed her ; it was on 

 account of the cripple that she was trying to hide 

 them. But they did not wish to hide. They were 



