138 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



or boar-hound, for the greyhound alone docs not seem to have 

 sufficient combativeness or destructiveness to face any animal 

 that will make a vigorous resistance. I am rather inclined to 

 believe that the latter cross would produce one of the best dog's 

 for coyote hunting- in the West, as it would have strength and 

 courage enough to face any game, and it ought to have 

 sufficient nose to enable it to follow a coyote, and the speed 

 to overtake it also. A good pack of fast fox-hounds will drive 

 it at a rattling pace, however, and if the ground is open, may 

 kill it inside an hour. I have known it to lead them for 

 twenty or more miles without a check on broken, hilly ground, 

 and escape in a chasm, yet I have frequently seen it captured 

 in half an hour; but then the dogs were fast indeed, and got 

 off close after it. I have seen several killed in a day by a 

 small pack, but in such cases they were in unusual numbers, 

 and rose up almost under the noses of the dogs. I have seen a 

 small pack of seventeen or eighteen couples of coyotes rise out 

 of burrows in the ground, apparently at once, and scud about 

 in every direction, and in their eagerness to escape they some- 

 times ran into the mouths of the dogs. Where they are so 

 numerous the greatest annoyance is that the hounds separate, 

 and the result is that there are perhaps a dozen runs going on 

 at the same time instead of one. 



If a coyote is started alone not an unusual occurrence 

 the best means of securing a kill is to drive it as hard 

 as possible for the first few miles, for, as in fox-hunting, it is 

 the pace at the start that does the work, and causes it to suc- 

 cumb in a short time. Having a large brush, it soon tires on 

 soft ground, on a wet day, especially if the mud carries, for 

 the tail is heavy and soon drags it down. If nature intended 

 it to escape by fleetness, she ought to have made it bob-tailed, 

 for its present long caudal appendage is too cumbersome for 

 its fore-quarters in a long run, and is a regular mud-carrier. 

 When the animal is running up hill it also trails badly, and 

 seems to almost counterbalance the advantage furnished by 

 long hind-legs and staunch flanks. Over hard, broken ground, 

 however, it does not seem to be so much of a drag-down, and 

 the bearer can then travel at a rate that would put the best 



