THE COYOTE, OR WOLF. 39 



like jackuls, and run down deer, bisons, nnd other 

 animals wliicli they hope to overcome. They dare 

 not attack the bisons when the latter arc in a body, 

 but they follow them at a distance, in the hope that 

 a laggard will drop off — a young calf, or it may be a 

 ver}' old and feeble bull, — when they rush upon their 

 prey and tear it to pieces. The}' follow hunting 

 and travelling parties, taking possession of aban- 

 doned encampments and devouring all they find in 

 them. Sometimes they will enter a camp during 

 the night, and will seize the food which the tra- 

 vellers intended to breakfast upon next morning. 

 These wolves are the most numerous of the North 

 American carnivora ; and, on account of their num- 

 bers, they suffer severely from hunger. Then, 

 indeed, and then only, they will eat fruits and 

 vegetables, merely to preserve themselves from star- 

 vation. The co3'ote is destitute of every feeling of 

 sympathy, and therefore he inspires none ; yet I 

 heard an anecdote, Avhich goes to prove that this 

 forest ruffian is capable of a certain amount of 

 sensibility, — nervous, at any rate, if not of the 

 heart. This story was told me whilst I was hunting 

 with the Pawnee Indians. 



During the earlier times of colonising Kentuck}-, 

 the coyotes were so numerous in the southern 

 prairies of that State, that the inhabitants dared not 

 leave their dwellings unless armed to the teeth. 

 "Women and children were compelled to stay at 



