WOLF-COURSING 131 



on the hams or flanks, if the animal is of any size. Owing 

 to their often acting in couples or in packs, the big wolves 

 do more damage to horned stock than cougars, but they 

 are not as dangerous to colts, and they are not nearly as 

 expert as the big cats in catching deer and mountain 

 sheep. When food is plentiful, good observers say that 

 they will not try to molest foxes; but, if hungry, they 

 certainly snap them up as quickly as they would fawns. 

 Ordinarily they show complete tolerance of the coyotes; 

 yet one bitter winter I knew of a coyote being killed and 

 eaten by a wolf. 



Not only do the habits of wild beasts change under 

 changing conditions as time goes on, but there seems to 

 be some change even in their appearance. Thus the early 

 observers of the game of the Little Missouri, those who 

 wrote in the first half of the nineteenth century, spoke 

 much of the white wolves which were then so common in 

 the region. These white wolves represented in all prob- 

 ability only a color variety of the ordinary gray wolf ; and 

 it is difficult to say exactly why they disappeared. Yet 

 when about the year 1890 wolves again grew common 

 these white wolves were very, very rare; indeed I never 

 personally heard of but one being seen. This was on the 

 Upper Cannonball in 1892. A nearly black wolf was 

 killed not far from this spot in the year 1893. At the 

 present day black wolves are more common than white 

 wolves, which are rare indeed. But all these big wolves 

 are now decreasing in numbers, and in most places are 

 decreasing rapidly. 



It will be noticed that on some points my observations 



