16 UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 



and, after an encounter of but a few minutes, one returned so lacerated as to cause its death within a week. Notwithstanding 

 this enmity, traces of the wolf are unmistakable, and frequently seen among many of the dogs of Northern Chihuahua and 

 Sonora. The inhabitants here make but two classes of the wolves, coyotes and lobos." — (J. H. Clark.) 



**This aiimal, so common in Texas, is also found in great numbers west of the Rio Grande, extending even to the shores of the 

 Pacific. Generally going in small bands, and frequenting, fjr the most part, the vicinity of the settlements, they are of en a 

 great annoyance on account of their depredations among the sheep and goats, which constitute the principal wealth of many 

 of the inhabitants. And although generally preferring the night for their excursions in search of prey, and preferring to 

 conceal themselves during the day in the grass, bushes, or rocky and solitary places, yet we have known them at EI Pa^o del 

 Norte to exhibit so much boldness as to come within the suburbs of the town, and prowl around among the houses in search of 

 food, while it was jet light, rarely being disturbed by the dogs, with which they even seemed to live on quite familiar terms. 

 Indeed, we have been assured by some of the inhabitants along the Rio Grande, that it is not at all uncommon for the coyote to 

 cohabit with the domestic bitch ; but notwithstanding we made great efibrts to procure or even see the offspring resulting from 

 this intercourse, we did not succeed in finding one where the proof was indubitable. 



" During our march from the Rio Grande to Los Nogales, in Sonora, there was scarcely a night that these animals were not in 

 the vicinity of our camp. Indeed, we have reason to believe that the same individuals often followed us for days from camp 

 to camp, occupying each successive one as soon as left by us, and making a feast of the scattered fragments, and then hurrying 

 on and trailing us to our next stopping place. During the day they were not very often seen^ but at night their proximity was 

 generally betrayed by their loud and peculiar bark. This bark is very different from that of the dog, and does not at all 

 resemble the dismal bowlings of the large species or Lobo. It is entirely unlike the noise made by any other animal of the 

 prairies, and, when once heard, can never afterwards he mistaken. It is very sharp, quick, and varied, and two or three 

 coyotes, joining in concert, make such a noise as might lead one who had never heard them before to iauppose that there were 

 thirty or forty animals present. 



" The boldness which they exhibited about the camp when hungry was as surprising as it was oflen annoying. They 

 somethues robbed the cooks of what they had set aside for breakfast, even in covered pots or kettles ; and should a piece of 

 fresh meat be left hanging on some neighboring bush, it was almost sure to disappear before morning; and sometimes even 

 harness or the equipage of riding animals might be dragged away or seriously injured by them, especially if it had been recently 

 greased, and left carelessly in the night a little distance from the men. 



"The coyote is not very swifl, and can be readily overtaken on the open plain by a horse of ordinary fleetness; this is a plan 

 sometimes adopted for their capture with the lasso, or shooting them with a pistol. 



w 



**I have never known it to attack the larger quadrupeds. It seems to depend mostly for subsistence in the desert regions, 

 and those removed from the settlements, in hunting rabbits, rats, young birds, &c. I have never known it to attack a man, 

 unless wounded, when it defends itself with fierceness and desperation," — (Dr. Kennerly.) 



*' Prairie wolf of the Texans ; coijoti of the Mexican ; coyotl of the ancient Mexican ; bay of the Apaches. — There is no other 

 quadruped forming so prominent a feature in the fauna of our western countries as the coyoti. Its importance in relation to 

 man may be subordinate to that of the puma, jaguar, bear, or some of the ruminantia, but this deficiency is sufHciently 

 counterbalanced by its numeric existence and some usefulness. This animal is called upon on one side to counteract an 

 exuberant growth of organic life, both animal or vegetable, and also to clear the surface of dead matter, which otherwise 

 would infect the atmosphere with unhealthy miasmata. What, too, the coyote may lack in size and muscular stronu-th is 

 BufRciently supplied by its activity, tenacity, and endurance. 



*' To almost every traveller the coyoti becomes first known by his howling about sunset or sunrise, in which several individuals 

 usually join. Thia twilight call grows regularly into a piteous whimpering, and is almost invariably preceded by the short and 

 sharp barking of one or two individuals, to which the others fall in instantly. It is, however, kept up only for a few minutes^ 

 afler which the congregation seem to disperse, each individual following its sport by itself. In the morning about daybreak, 

 oflen nearer to sunrise, a similar congregation takes place and ends in the same manner. 



*' To what purpose the coyotis hold their daily meetings can be but conjectured, and may not improperly be put on the same 

 ground with similar gatherings of the crows or migrating birds before their journeys. 



"Such gatherings of animals otherwise living and breeding in herds or flocks do not involve particular questions, but with the 

 coyoti, which leads a solitary private life, and join^ his kind only before scouting, it is different." -(A. Sjhott.) 



U. VULPES VIRGINIANUS, Ricli. (p. 138.)— Grey Fox. 



The determination of tliis animal as an inhabitant of Texas rests on specimens collected on 

 the lower Rio Grande hy Mr. Schott. It is found all through the United States, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. 



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