THE SCAVENGERS 



time for the scavengers, we saw two buz- 

 zards, five ravens, and a coyote feeding 

 on the same carrion, and only the coyote 

 seemed ashamed of the company. 



Probably we never fully credit the inter- 

 dependence of wild creatures, and their 

 cognizance of the affairs of their own kind. 

 When the five coyotes that range the Te- 

 jon from Pasteria to Tunawai planned a 

 relay race to bring down an antelope 

 strayed from the band, beside myself to 

 watch, an eagle swung down from Mt. 

 Pinos, buzzards, materialized out of invis- 

 ible ether, and hawks came trooping like 

 small boys to a street fight. Rabbits sat 

 up in the chaparral and cocked their ears, 

 feeling themselves quite safe for the once 

 as the hunt swunor near them. Nothina: 

 happens in the deep wood that the blue 

 jays are not all agog to tell. The hawk 

 55 



