222 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



in dog town. A dog town without a coyote 

 would be like Hades without Mephistopheles. 



The prairie dog likes to keep close to his hole, 

 or to the hole of a neighbour into which he can 

 duck and escape the surprise raids of the coyote. 



The coyote stalks patiently, hiding until a 

 dog comes close or is too far from his hole to 

 outrun the coyote to it. Coyotes hunt in pairs 

 or fours and often while one, two, or three of them 

 are holding the attention of the dogs the other 

 coyote makes a sudden dash. Sometimes they 

 take sheer delight in stirring up things in con- 

 gested corners of dog town. 



As I stood watching them, screened by the 

 cottonwood, two coyotes crossed the corner of 

 dog town and set it all agog. While these 

 coyotes made their way leisurely through dog 

 town the dogs sat on their crater-like mounds 

 and uttered rapid-fire protests, ready to drop 

 into safety in case of a rush by the coyotes. 

 Suddenly two old dogs wheeled and yapped at 

 highest rattling speed. While the first pair 

 of coyotes was attracting attention a second 

 pair appeared. The old dogs violently denounced 

 the second pair for this surprise. But the coyote 

 is ever doing the unexpected. 



On the outskirts of Cactus Center numerous 

 pairs of coyotes had enlarged prairie dog holes 

 for a den. Pairs of prairie owls occupied other 



