166 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



was perhaps twenty feet across and about as 

 high. The treetops were sticking out of it.. 



On the top of the snowdrift a cotton-tail was 

 feeding happily off the bark of the small limbs. 

 This raised platform had given him a good op- 

 portunity to get at a convenient food supply. 

 He was making the most of this. At the bot- 

 tom he had bored a hole in the snow pile and 

 apparently planned to live there. 



While peeping into this hole two mice scamp- 

 ered along it. This snow would protect them 

 against coyotes. Safe under the snow they 

 could make their little tunnels, eat grass and 

 gnaw bark, without the fear of a coyote jump- 

 ing upon them. 



Tracks and records in the snow showed that 

 for two days a coyote did not capture a thing to 

 eat. During this time he had travelled miles. 

 He had closely covered a territory about three 

 miles in diameter. There was game in it, but 

 his luck was against him. He was close to 

 a rabbit, grabbed a mouthful of feathers but 

 the grouse escaped, and even looked at a number 

 of deer. At last, after more than two days, and 

 possibly longer, he caught a mouse or two. 



Antelope in the plains appear to live in the 

 same territory the year round. Many times 

 in winter I have been out on the plains and 

 found a flock feeding where I had seen it in 



