80 BULLETIIN NO. VII. 



The coyote is a familiar pest upon the plains of the central 

 United States, and is a very persistent, if cowardly neighbor. 

 Its food varies with the exigencies of its situation. While it 

 prefers live game, and shows much endurance in its pursuit, it 

 will not reject offal and the refuse from the campers meals. It 

 will follow a party long distances subsisting on what is thrown 

 away. When hard pressed, however, it has recourse to vege- 

 table substances, such as the fruit of the prickly pear, juniper 

 and other berries. The howl is remarkably melancholy, and 

 does not tend to enliven the solitude of its domain It consists 

 of a short quick bark, followed by others in quick succession 

 in ascending gamut, until they are combined in one long drawn 

 wail. The clamor is greatest at night-fall and continues 

 through the night at intervals, breaking up with a noisy de- 

 monstration at daybreak. 



Dr. Coues insists on the close similarity between the coyote 

 and the ancestor of the domestic dog. The Indian dog inter- 

 breeds freely, it is asserted, with the wild animal and the 

 crosses are perfectly fertile. 



The female after a period gestation similar to that of the 

 dog brings forth five or six puppies in secluded spots, caverns 

 or recesses in the rocks. The only available means of des- 

 troying these wolves seems to be poison, as they avoid traps 

 sedulously. 



GENUS VULPES. 



The foxes differ from wolves and dogs in their elliptical 

 pupil, bushy tail, more slender form, unlobed upper incisors 

 and form of the postorbital process. South America furnishes 

 a perfect transition in its wolf-like foxes with circular pupils. 

 Aside from the Arctic fox which is circumpolar this genus con- 

 tains F. velox and F. macrus of the plains (neither of which is 

 known from Minnesota) and the red fox. 



Tulpes Yulgaris L. 



This familiar animal is distributed over the whole north tem- 

 perate region and is everywhere very variable. There is some 

 little reason to suppose that the red fox has been introduced into 

 this country, if not by man, at least later than the gray fox, 

 the bones of which are found abundantly in bone caverns. 



The red fox is about 40 inches long, the tail occupying ] 8 

 inches. Hight 12-14 inches. In the ordinary variety the 



