CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 233 



shoulder and is still as savage by nature 

 as in the early days when it terrorised the 

 settlers in the Far West, though it is no longer 

 so dreaded by men armed with modern rifles. 

 Nevertheless, it is still a source of continual 

 loss to the farmers, and its numbers seem to 

 increase in spite of the reward, varying from 

 two dollars to ten, paid for its destruction in 

 many of the States. Though always cowardly 

 when there is a chance of escape, it is a terrible 

 adversary when brought to bay, and even the 

 staunchest dogs may hesitate to venture within 

 reach of its powerful jaws. 



There is in some quarters a regrettable 

 tendency to depict the wild beasts as invari- 

 ably friendly to man unless he provokes them, 

 and to make light of the dangers he runs from 

 them under peculiar circumstances (such as 

 famine or anxiety for their young), which may 

 make them abnormally aggressive. One 

 popular naturalist, who lectured in England 

 last spring, actually went so far as to say that 

 the timber wolf of Canada never attacks man, 

 a statement which it is difficult to reconcile 

 with the fact of these animals having not only 

 attacked but also devoured two mail-runners 

 the year before ! The wolf in winter rarely 

 loses an opportunity, though generally it has 

 to watch the meal that might have been. 



The coyote (the word is pronounced as three 



