A Touch of Nature 
seven ewes and a small ram. I had killed two 
better rams long since, so determined to leave 
this fellow alone, and as the afternoon was 
drawing to a close I gave up any idea of looking 
for any other sheep, and sat down to watch 
the animals with my glasses for half an hour. 
They were dotted about on the flat ground 
peacefully chewing the cud, when I noticed one 
of the ewes get up and face a small creek. A 
few seconds later a coyote put in an appearance 
close to her, whether for sport or because he 
wanted to frighten her, I cannot tell, but it 
seemed to me as I watched from above that the 
former was decidedly the case; for he kept 
running at the ewe, behaving exactly as a dog 
will do whilst at play. This went on for some 
minutes, when the ram thought it time to 
interfere. He trotted towards his enemy, and 
when within twenty yards stopped, stamping 
_ his foot, after which he charged the coyote for 
all he was worth. Of course the latter had no 
sort of difficulty in getting out of the way, and 
took up his position again a few yards off, lying 
down with his head on his paws. Again the 
ram charged, only to be avoided as before. 
This went on for some ten minutes, until the 
coyote seemed to tire of the game and disappeared 
into the creek bottom. It is curious that the 
rest of the ewes took little or no notice of this 
little performance, for they did not even take 
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