66 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



friend or a stranger comes along who expresses a desire to see 

 the sport. 



The Jack rabbit needs no introduction, except to say he is 

 not a rabbit at all but a hare. He resembles the rabbit in build, 

 but is about twice as large. He does not burrow like a rabbit, 

 but breeds above ground and when pursued, seldom, if ever, 

 takes to ground even in a rabbit or badger country, where 

 burrows are most numerous. The coyote is the outlaw and sca- 

 venger of the plains; he lives on rabbits which he tracks by 

 scent like a dog. He picks the bones of all unfortunate cattle 

 whose hves come to an end wliile afield. 



He is about half way between a fox and a wolf and re- 

 sembles one quite as much as the other. He has not the cun- 

 ning of the former, the opinion of some of my coyote friends 

 to the contrary notwithstanding. Like the wolf, he is a coward, 

 but becomes bold and aggressive when in bands. They are 

 generally found separate when hunting their smaller prey, 

 such as rabbits and prairie dogs, but when hunger is upon them 

 they organise, as in guerrilla warfare, and will pull down a calf 

 or a yearling, or even a bullock or cow, that is too sickly or 

 weak to resist them. 



Mr. Harry Petrie, who has a ranch near Denver, lost 

 twenty-seven yearling heifers in one season, that were pulled 

 down by coyotes. This turned Mr. Petrie's milk of human 

 kindness to wormwood and gall. He bought some nonde- 

 script dogs of foxhound extraction to begin with; these he 

 gradually weeded out and in their places has one of the best 

 packs of pure greyhounds for coyote hunting in Colorado. 

 From hunting his foe for revenge he now hunts liim for sport. 

 Although he has taken from twenty-five to fifty head of coyo- 

 tes a year for the last ten years he still remembers the death of 

 his Herefords. He says, "It does me more good than a feed 

 of oats to see a coyote pulled down." 



When pressed by hounds a coyote usually runs to others of 



