102 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



dry burrow, or prepares a den among loose rocks. 

 The butte districts of the upper Missouri and 

 lower Colorado valleys are therefore his strong- 

 holds. There the decay of sandstone strata, and 

 the breakage due to volcanic eruptions and upheav- 

 als, give him the choice of a large number of cran- 

 nies, while the desolation and remoteness of wide 

 tracts untenanted by men still afford him the seclu- 

 sion he covets. 



In such seclusion his young family of from five 

 to eight pups is brought forth during the latter 

 part of spring, the date varying with the latitude. 

 It is just before and after the birth of the puppies 

 that the old dog-coyotes work their hardest and 

 the most systematically. In hunting at this time 

 our wolf adds to his ordinary pertinacity and zeal, 

 the sagacity and endurance necessary to turn his 

 victims and drive them back as near as possible to 

 his home, knowing that otherwise his mate and 

 her weaklings will be unable to partake of the 

 feast. 



A remarkable picture of this was given some 

 years ago in an English magazine (unfortunately 

 I have lost the exact reference) by a traveller who, 

 in one of the best "animal chapters" it has ever 

 been my privilege to read, detailed a chase of this 

 kind as witnessed by him in the grand forests 

 near Lake Nicaragua. 



The traveller and his Indian hunter-companion 

 had discovered, just before encamping for the 





