Il6 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP, iv 



gratitude, nor any of that responsive attachment 

 that makes the well-bred dog so lovable as a friend. 



Moreover, in spite of his natural subtlety and 

 shrewdness, he shows little aptitude for learning 

 the ordinary accomplishments of dogs, and so fails 

 to sustain an interest in him after the novelty 

 of first acquaintance passes off. Perhaps this 

 seeming inaptitude is really unwillingness, since 

 he may easily regard the things sought to be taught 

 him as beneath his serious attention. If so, the 

 fact that he is occasionally seen as one of the 

 showman's performing animals is all the more 

 noticeable; since unquestionably he could say to 

 the audience, 



" I could show you a trick worth two o' that." 



NOTE. Recently the prairie wolves, formerly regarded as 

 a single species (Cam's latrans)^ have been re-classified in 

 several species and subspecies, the names and distinctions of 

 which may be learned from Dr. D. G. Elliot's " Synopsis of 

 Mammals," a storehouse of technical descriptions of North 

 American mammals. The publications of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, since 1899, have contained much 

 information as to the habits of coyotes, especially Bailey's 

 " Biological Survey of Texas," and Lantz's " Coyotes in their 

 Economic Relations." The hunting of these small wolves has 

 been the subject of many recent essays, none better than a 

 chapter in Roosevelt's " Pastimes of an American Hunter." 

 A large collection of Indian myths and legends in which this 

 animal is the hero may be studied in Power's " Indians of 

 California," and in Powell's " Exploration of the Colorado 

 River," both published by the Government. 



