220 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



It is easy to get a chance to watch elk and black tail 

 deer while they are lying down, on account of their habit 

 of lying in the open, but the opposite is true of white tail 

 deer because of their habit of hiding. It is not often one 

 can get a good view of a white tail deer, excepting when 

 they are feeding or traveling. 



The coyote is often called in books the barking wolf, 

 because its bark resembles somewhat the barking of a small 

 dog. One time when making hay, I laid aside the pitchfork 

 and went to a nearby spring for a drink of cold water. Hav- 

 ing satisfied my thirst, I lay down for a little while under 

 a bunch of tall sunflowers that afforded some shade from 

 the hot August sun. While lying in the shade, well screened 

 from sight, I saw a coyote coming toward me, and it proved 

 to be the best chance ever offered me to watch one unob- 

 served. When first seen he was about eighty rods away, but 

 he kept gradually coming nearer until finally he passed 

 within ten rods of where I was lying without noticing me 

 at all. A coyote is as sharp of sight as any animal that I 

 know of, not even excepting the antelope, but as I was pretty 

 well hidden and scarcely moved at all, he did not see me. 

 His actions in every respect were like those of a dog. When 

 not more than a dozen rods away he sat down upon his 

 haunches, and pointing his nose up toward the sky gave a 

 series of coyote yip, yip, yips, which is familiar to almost 

 all the rural inhabitants of Nebraska. 



The raccoon of Nebraska is an animal found almost 

 exclusively along the streams where there is more or less 

 timber. I have come across them several times, either when 

 hunting or when tracing lines, and always they were on or 

 near the bank of a stream where there was more or less 

 timber. Once I saw one in the bottom of a little creek where 

 there were several springs coming out from under a bank 

 that was thickly covered with trees and brush. I lay dov^n 

 on top of the bank twenty or thirty feet above him and where 



