1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 277 



To a great extent they are wanderers, moving from place to place 

 in search of food, following the sheep and game herds high into the 

 mountains in summer and oack to the valleys in winter, or, in time 

 of scarcity, seeking new ranges in quest of food. Still they seem 

 to have a strong home instinct and apparently return to their home 

 breeding grounds when possible. Easy and rapid travelers, they 

 cover a wide nightly range, but are often seen abroad in daylight, 

 gliding through the sagebrush, loping across meadows, or hunting 

 for mice and ground squirrels in the fields. At times they are bold 

 and inquisitive, coming close to unarmed humans, or actually into 

 dooryards for poultry; but usually they are shy and wary, keeping 

 well out of rifle range during daylight. 



Noisiest of all our wolf tribe, they are more often heard than seen. 

 Their yap, yap, yap, yi, yi, yi, followed by a long shrill ow, ou, ou, ou, 

 ou, rings far in a still night, so fast and jumbled that the voice of 1 

 often sounds like 2, and 2 in chorus sound like 6, in a real call of 

 the wild, and a neighboring cliff sometimes doubles or quadruples 

 these sounds. On special occasions they are heard in the daytime, 

 but most commonly in evening or early morning, at the opening or 

 closing of the night's hunt. 



Breeding habits. Four years' records of the predatory-animal 

 hunters in Oregon show January as the mating time and April in 

 most instances as the month of birth. Females containing foetuses 

 have been taken as late as April 29, while newly born young have 

 been found in the dens as early as April 5 and 6. The period of ges- 

 tation is about 65 days. Some of the females may not breed when 

 a year old, but others apparently do, producing a small number of 

 3 or 4 young. The number of young in a litter, as shown by exami- 

 nation of embryos and litters of young in the dens in 110 cases in 

 Oregon, runs as follows: One litter of 12 young; 7 of 10; 10 of 9; 

 22 of 8; 11 of 7; 26 of 6; 22 of 5; 10 of 4; and 1 of 3. The average in 

 this series is 6% young to a litter. 



At birth the young are very dark brown or sooty black, and almost 

 invisible in the darkness of deep burrows, caves, or hollows of badland 

 banks, or under masses of broken rocks. When old enough to toddle 

 out of the den and play about the entrance, they are a yellowish-gray 

 or clay color, harmonizing well with the bare ground or clay banks. 



Coyotes breed but once a year and the family, including the male, 

 usually remains together well into the autumn, the old male doing 

 much of the hunting and killing of game for the young. Often, 

 however, the family is broken up and scattered by hunters or dogs, 

 and only occasionally are they seen together after the young are full 

 grown. Whether the same male and female remain as a pair year 

 after year is not definitely known, but early in January they are 

 found running in pairs and when the young are small the male is 

 generally on guard near the den. In July when the half-grown 

 pups are out of the den both parents are exceedingly active and 

 anxious in guarding and leading them and will often risk their lives 

 to attract hunters away from the young. 



Food habits. While mainly meat eaters, coyotes have a wide range 

 of food besides the flesh of mammals and birds, including snakes, 

 lizards, salamanders, frogs, insects, and a great variety of fruits 

 and berries. The following list of foods noted in the field examina- 



