A Touch of Nature 



seven ewes and a small ram. I had killed two 

 better rams long since, so determined to leave 

 this fellow alone, and as the afternoon was 

 drawing to a close I gave up any idea of looking 

 for any other sheep, and sat down to watch 

 the animals with my glasses for half an hour. 

 They were dotted about on the flat ground 

 peacefully chewing the cud, when I noticed one 

 of the ewes get up and face a small creek. A 

 few seconds later a coyote put in an appearance 

 close to her, whether for sport or because he 

 wanted to frighten her, I cannot tell, but it 

 seemed to me as I watched from above that the 

 former was decidedly the case ; for he kept 

 running at the ewe, behaving exactly as a dog 

 will do whilst at play. This went on for some 

 minutes, when the ram thought it time to 

 interfere. He trotted towards his enemy, and 

 when within twenty yards stopped, stamping 

 his foot, after which he charged the coyote for 

 all he was worth. Of course the latter had no 

 sort of difficulty in getting out of the way, and 

 took up his position again a few yards off, lying 

 down with his head on his paws. Again the 

 ram charged, only to be avoided as before. 

 This went on for some ten minutes, until the 

 coyote seemed to tire of the game and disappeared 

 into the creek bottom. It is curious that the 

 rest of the ewes took little or no notice of this 

 little performance, for they did not even take 



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