Cate 
‘“‘This was the coyote’s opportunity. As the hags dashed out 
at one door, he seized a flaming brand in his teeth and leaped 
through the other. He almost flew over the ground, but the 
hags saw him and the sparks and gave chase, gaining on him 
fast. By the time he was out of breath he reached the puma, 
who took the brand and ran with it to the next animal, and 
so on. Last of all was the frog, who caught the last spark of 
fire in his mouth, swallowed it and dived, the hags catching 
his tail, twitching it off in the act. The frog swam _ under 
water a long distance, then came up and spat the fire into a 
log of driftwood, and there it has stayed ever since, so that 
when an Indian rubs two pieces of wood together the fire 
comes forth.” 
Most tribes of Western and Northwestern Indians are friendly to 
the coyote, and their dogs seem to be partly at least of coyote 
descent. 
The coyote is much too cunning to allow himself to be 
trapped. The trappers say that there is only one animal that 
is harder to catch, and that is the wolverine. The coyote’s rav- 
enous appetite, however, frequently gets him into trouble, for 
in winter he picks up and bolts every scrap of meat that he 
can find, first making sure that there is no hidden trap beside 
it. But he cannot always tell when meat has been poisoned, 
and large numbers are destroyed every season by scattering 
scraps of poisoned meat where they will be sure to find it. 
The soft yellowish-gray fur of the coyote is rather pretty, 
but is not of the right quality to make it a valuable fur. The 
best skins seldom sell for more than 50c. or 75c.; even at this 
price large numbers are collected each winter. They are usually 
made up into lap-robes or great coats, and sometimes into 
driving gloves. 
CATS 
Family Felide 
In addition to our American Wild Cats there belong to this 
family also the Domestic Cat and the Lion, Tiger, Leopard and 
other most powerful carnivora. Fossil remains found in both 
the Eastern and Western States show that there were much more 
powerful members of this family existing here in past geological 
283 
