IV THE HOUND OF THE PLAINS 1 09 



eatable refuse may have been left behind. But 

 it cannot always find a sufficiency of animal food. 

 Particularly in the fall, it feeds extensively on 

 'tunas,' which are the juicy, soft, scarlet fruit of 

 various species of prickly pear (ppuntia)\ and in 

 the winter upon berries of various sorts, particu- 

 larly those of the juniper." 



Under the pangs of excessive hunger these 

 small wolves are compelled to a furtive boldness 

 of which they are incapable under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances. Thus I have known them to come 

 repeatedly within pistol-range of my camp-fire in 

 southern Colorado, and hunters tell me that they 

 have been known to pull, or try to pull, the boots 

 or the leather straps of a saddle, from under the 

 head of a slumbering camper. Sitgreaves records 

 that when, for two days and nights, his party had 

 kept possession of some solitary springs in an arid 

 part of Arizona, the coyotes became so desperate 

 from thirst that they would come to drink while 

 men and mules were at the spring. 



In the account of their habits in Nicaragua, to 

 which I have already referred, is included the 

 opinion of the Indian who was accompanying the 

 writer, and who evidently held this wolf in higher 

 respect than do those of us who know the animal 

 only on the plains. 



" You see [says Manuelo] they are not like other 

 beasts, afraid of fire. . . . They cluster round it 

 at night, and the larger your fire, the more coyotes. 



