WOLVES AND WOLF-HOUNDS. 189 



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 mur- 

 dered the bleating, struggling 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 redoubted enemies of foxes. 

 They are easily able to overtake 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. Sometimes 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 some- 

 times seize a coyote, tear it in pieces and de- 

 vour 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 remains 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 

 master and there are but few that they can- 

 not. Nevertheless, I have been told of one 

 instance in which a wolf struck up an extraor- 

 dinary friendship with a strayed dog, and the 

 two lived and hunted together for many 

 months, being frequently seen by the settlers 



47 



