Wolves and Wolf-Hounds. 395 



wolf was just old enough to begin to feel vicious and blood- 

 thirsty, and to show symptoms of attacking the deer. On 

 the occasion in question he got loose and ran towards it, 

 but it turned, and began to hit him with its fore-feet, seem- 

 ingly in sport ; whereat he rolled over on his back before 

 it, and acted like a puppy at play. Soon it turned and 

 walked off ; immediately the wolf, with bristling hair, 

 crawled after, and with a pounce seized it by the haunch, 

 and would doubtless have murdered the bleating, strug- 

 gling creature, had not the bystanders interfered. 



Where there are no domestic animals, wolves feed on 

 almost anything from a mouse to an elk. They are re- 

 doubted enemies of foxes. They are easily able to over- 

 take them in fair chase, and kill numbers. If the fox can 

 get into the underbrush, however, he can dodge around 

 much faster than the wolf, and so escape pursuit. Some- 

 times one wolf will try to put a fox out of a cover while 

 another waits outside to snap him up. Moreover, the 

 wolf kills even closer kinsfolk than the fox. When pressed 

 by hunger it will undoubtedly sometimes seize a coyote, 

 tear it in pieces and devour it, although during most of 

 the year the two animals live in perfect harmony. I once 

 myself, while out in the deep snow, came across the re- 

 mains of a coyote that had been killed in this manner. 

 Wolves are also very fond of the flesh of dogs, and if they 

 get a chance promptly kill and eat any dog they can mas- 

 ter and there are but few that they cannot. Neverthe- 

 less, I have been told of one instance in which a wolf struck 

 up an extraordinary friendship with a strayed dog, and the 

 two lived and hunted together for many months, being 



