92 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



it, turned and hurried back to the starting place. 

 Going closer I discovered that she had a young 

 kid with her. This was being watched by a 

 near-by coyote. A part of the time he laid 

 near. If the antelope drove him off he at once 

 returned and paced back and forth dangerously 

 near the kid. Some animal had already secured 

 one of her young, and I fear that the coyote wore 

 the mother out and feasted on the other. 



The gray wolf often kills wantonly kills for 

 fun, when food is not needed. Rarely, I think, 

 does the coyote do this. In times of plenty he 

 becomes an actor and gives plays and concerts; 

 but if fate provides an excess of food he is likely 

 to cache or store it. A miner lost half a sheep 

 from his pack horse. Half an hour later I 

 went along his trail and discovered a coyote 

 burying a part of this, covering it by means of 

 his nose, like a dog. He had eaten to round- 

 ness and had nothing in his outlines to suggest 

 the lean wolf. 



He eats about everything that has any food 

 value meat, fruit, grasses, and vegetables in 

 all stages of greenness and ripeness. He has 

 the bad habit of killing young big game; cap- 

 turing birds and robbing their nests; raiding 

 barnyards for chickens, ducks, and turkeys; 

 and sometimes he feeds on sheep and occasion- 

 ally kills a calf. Often he catches a fish or frog, 



