YOSEMITE NATURE GUIDE BULLETINS 295 



of the National Park Service. It served in 1920, 27,047 visitors. 

 In 192 1 more than 50,000 visitors were aided. Dr. H. C. Bryant, 

 Game Expert of the Fish and Game Commission, will again be in 

 charge. 



THE COYOTE, THE INDIAN'S IDEAL OF SAGACITY 



Berkeley, May 31st: No animal has entered so largely into the 

 folklore of the western Indian as has the coyote. It was Mr. 

 Coyote who did most of the worthwhile things, brought fire to the 

 earth, rescued those in distress, and ruled over the destiny of 

 both man and beast. Furthermore, the coyote was the fore- 

 runner of the Indian's domestic breed of dogs. The white man 

 also classifies him as the most sagacious and intelligent of the 

 western wild folk. A resident of both the plains and the moun- 

 tains, the coyote attains his greatest development in the higher 

 altitudes, as for instance, in Yosemite National Park, where the 

 nature guides occasionally have the chance to point out this 

 member of the dog family, or call attention to its weird howl. 

 The mountain coyote is often of such size as to be called a wolf 

 but this larger cousin of the coyote is yet to be taken within the 

 borders of California. The coyote furnishes a subject for some 

 of the lectures and campfire talks of the nature guides who, under 

 the auspices of the National Park Service and the California 

 Fish and Game Commission, tell vacationists of the more in- 

 teresting forms of life, and who lead nature-study field classes 

 where nature is studied first hand. The summer of 1922 will be 

 the third season of the Yosemite Free Nature Guide Service, a 

 service which has proved so popular that it has been extended to 

 two other national parks. 



