454 PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY 



mal is beneficial. The harmful predaceous mammals include 

 the wolves and cougars, which subsist largely upon big game, 

 sheep, cattle, and horses, and the house cat, which destroys 

 millions of birds in this country annually. 



The other predaceous mammals are occasionally harmful, 

 but usually beneficial. Coyotes and wildcats, if poultry and 

 sheep are properly protected, devote their attention to rabbits 

 and other small mammals, and insects. The mink often commits 

 depredations upon poultry, but more than pays for this by de- 

 stroying meadow mice and muskrats. The weasel has a similar 

 bill of fare. The skunk destroys immense numbers of mice, 

 grubs, and noxious insects. The badger feeds largely upon 

 ground squirrels and other burrowing mammals and insects. 



Wolves and coyotes cause a loss to the stockmen and farmers of 

 the United States of several million dollars annually, and in 

 some of the Northern States they threaten the extermination of 

 deer on many of the best hunting grounds. Many methods 

 have been used to prevent these losses. Elk are persistent 

 enemies of wolves, and a few of them are able to protect the 

 flocks of sheep in a thousand-acre pasture. In many states 

 bounties are paid for killing wolves and coyotes, but this has 

 not resulted in their extinction. The best way of preventing 

 their increase is to locate their dens and destroy the young each 

 year. The dens are natural cavities in rocky ridges or in 

 hollow logs. The wolves produce from six to ten young in a 

 litter and the coyotes from five to nine. Traps and poisoned 

 meat are also employed to capture or kill the adults. The 

 stock in small pastures can be protected from these predaceous 

 mammals by fences built so that they cannot get through. 



The fox (Fig. 289), from its occasional misdeeds, is looked upon 

 by the majority of mankind as a deep-dyed villain that devotes 

 its entire life to robbery and derives all its forage from the 

 chicken yard or duck pen. As a matter of fact, even in localities 

 where foxes are abundant, it is comparatively rare that poultry 

 is destroyed by them. On all well-regulated farms chickens 



