IN THE FAR I I7i ST. 117 



glad to quit it for a mouthful of meat at the earliest oppor- 

 tunity. 



It is amusing to see them try to capture an antelope or a 

 buffalo, and the wiles to which they resort to obtain every 

 advantage. One group may stand in front of the creature to 

 attract its attention, while another steals round to the rear, 

 and attempts to cut the tendon by a sudden bound. If foiled 

 in this they break away promptly to avoid a thrust of the 

 horns, while the others rush in, and by these cunning assaults 

 they frequently obtain a feast in a short time. 



When the quarry is disabled they tear it to death as it were. 

 I have known them to eat a good-sized buck inside of ten 

 minutes after its capture. They are constant attendants upon 

 the herds of antelopes and buffaloes that exist on the plains of 

 the West, and follow the latter in their migrations as far as 

 the wintry regions of British America. When large game 

 becomes scarce they manage to eke out an existence by preying 

 on prairie dogs, hares, ground squirrels, badgers, foxes, and 

 other animals, and such refuse as they may find in deserted 

 camps and Indian villages. If farm-houses are convenient 

 they display their affection for the inmates of the farm-yard on 

 every possible occasion, but they are mostly attached to sheep, 

 pigs, and calves. 



Although they are the pirates of the plains, and the deadly 

 foes of all animals they think they can destroy, yet they are 

 very useful in that region, for they act as scavengers, and 

 clear away the putrifying carcasses of hundreds of animals that 

 die from various causes, and which but for them would make 

 the plains a bed of pestilence at certain seasons. 



Little can be said against them on account of their danger 

 to man, fur they seldom attack him even when they are in 

 overpowering numbers and starving; and in this characteristic 

 they present a strong and favourable contrast to their Euro- 

 pean congeners. I have heard of only one corroborated case 

 in which they attacked a human being, and that was under 

 exceptional circumstances. During a severe winter, when the 

 fall of snow was very great, an Indian hunter in Northern 

 Idaho killed a deer one day, and while taking it home the 



