1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 279 



Absolute extermination of the coyotes over any considerable area 

 is practically impossible and is undesirable, but a wise control of 

 their abundance locally is necessary for the best interests of stockmen, 

 farmers, and all concerned. Fortunately their fur has a value which 

 partly checks their numbers and pays a considerable share of the 

 expense of systematic and organized control. 



Highly efficient and economical methods of trapping and poisoning 

 coyotes have been worked out and put into practice by Biological 

 Survey experts, and full directions have been published, so as to 

 enable others to cooperate in a wide-spread campaign for their con- 

 trol. Directions for trapping and poisoning can be had by applying 

 to the Biological Survey. Improved methods are given from time 

 to time as they are discovered and tested. 



Hydrophobia became very prevalent among the coyotes of eastern 

 Oregon in 1914 and continued up to about 1920, causing great loss of 

 domestic stock and many human lives. Many dogs were bitten. 

 These conveyed the disease to stock and people, and a serious epidemic 

 of one of the most dreaded diseases ensued. The force of animal 

 hunters was increased and concentrated in the localities where rabies 

 was most prevalent until the number of coyotes was so reduced that 

 the disease was checked and finally put under control, but not until 

 serious losses of life and property and heavy expenses had been 

 suffered. In future such outbreaks can be controlled much more 

 promptly from the experience gained in this case, and if carefully 

 watched need not spread over such extensive areas. 



CANIS FAMILIARIS LINNAEUS 

 DOMESTIC DOGS 



Canis familiaris Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., p. 56, 1766-99. 



Type locality. Sweden. 



General characters. Varying widely from pug and poodle to bulldog, grey- 

 hound, mastiff, great dane, and innumerable other varieties of unknown origin. 

 Distinguished from our large wolves by generally smaller size, lighter dentition, 

 relatively shorter, wider, higher skulls, and from the coyotes by less slender 

 and elongated skulls and by lack of well-developed inner cusp, or protocone, 

 of upper carnassial tooth. In this, as in other characters, they show closer 

 affinity with the wolves of some ancient forms from which they are supposed 

 to have originated, than with our modern wolves. 



Varieties. No attempt will be made to define or even list by name the 

 domestic varieties of dogs in Oregon, as probably most of the well-known forms 

 of the world would be included. A brief list of the varieties noted among 

 the aborigines during the days of early settlement of the State may, however, 

 serve a useful purpose in bringing to light further information and possibly 

 the preservation of additional specimens and records for a later and more com- 

 prehensive study of the Canidae. Any skulls or skeletons of dogs from caves 

 or ancient burial sites should be preserved for study in local collections or 

 museums, or sent to the United States National Museum, at Washington, D. C., 

 accompanied by full data. 



To Suckley and Gibbs (1860, pp. 89-139) of the Pacific Kailroad 

 surveys, the writer is especially indebted for important notes on dogs 

 found among the Indians of Oregon in 1853 to 1855, and more re- 

 cently to Glover M. Allen (1920, p. 431) of Cambridge, Mass., for 

 bringing together in the Proceedings of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology for 1920 the scattered information on the aboriginal dogs of 

 North America. 



