Wolves and Wolf Nature 



saying : " You know the cowboys here take a 

 cow's hide and slit it up into strips and twist 

 up a lariat for lassoing, and put a drag hon- 

 doo — a block of rawhide or wood — on the 

 end. They picketed their horses out with 

 them years ago when things was new, and 

 often had their horses cut loose at night. 

 The coyotes never bother rope, but I've seen 

 rawhide lariats cut up into short pieces by 

 them as slick and smooth aj if cut with a 

 knife. Everybody always looks out for his 

 lariats when they are off on the ranges. A 

 coyote would slip right up and cut them. 

 I've been told of it by a great many horse 

 men, and have heard of it out in the deserts 

 east of here." 



•'They're a sneakin* animal," the ranchman 

 declared, stroking his beard, and then went 

 on to tell his experiences around the sheep 

 camps. "If they get round the bed ground, 

 the sheep will bunch up. I had a bunch of 

 sheep, about 2,400, on the desert near the 

 Grand Cafion. The coyotes was thick there. 

 You could hear them barkin' in every direc- 

 tion — such gangs of them, all barking and 

 howling at the same time. On a dark night 



like this they'd make night hideous. We were 



189 



; 



