4(i ZOOLOGY. 



during the night. They arc rarely, if ever, heard in the daytime, though 

 frequently to be seen, at least in secluded regions. Ordinarily, however, 

 they spend the day in quiet out-of-the-way places, among rocks, in thick 

 copses, etc., and seek their prey mainly by night, collecting for this purpose 

 into packs, as already noticed. 



" The Coyote', although a carnivore, is a very indiscriminate feeder, and 

 nothing seems to come amiss which is capable of being chewed and swal- 

 lowed. From the nature of the region it inhabits, it is often hard-pressed 

 for food, particularly in the winter season. Besides such live game as it 

 can surprise and kill, or overpower by persevering pursuit and force of 

 numbers, it feeds greedily upon all sorts of dead animal matter. To procure 

 this, it resorts in great numbers to the vicinity of settlements, where offal is 

 sure to be found, and surrounds the hunter's camp at night. It is well 

 known to follow for days in the trail of a traveling-party, and each morn- 

 ing, just after camp is broken, it rushes in to claim whatever eatable refuse 

 may have been left behind. But it cannot always find a sufficiency of ani- 

 mal food, and is thus made frugivorous and herbivorous. Particularly in 

 the fall, it feeds extensively upon "tunas," which are the juicy, soft, scarlet 

 fruit of various species of Prickly Pear ( Opuntia) ; and in the winter upon 

 berries of various sorts, particularly those of the Juniper (Juniperus pachy- 

 derma), and others. 



" Coyote's are so annoying that a variety of means are used to destroy 

 them. They may be shot, of course, but to hunt them in the daytime is 

 uncertain, and hardly worth the trouble, while night shooting is still more 

 laborious and unsatisfactory. Their cunning, inquiring" disposition is ordi- 

 narily more than a match for man's ingenuity in the way of traps. The 

 most certain as well as the easiest method of obtaining them is by poisoning 

 the carcass of a dead animal or butcher's offal with strychnine. There is 

 no doubt, also, that the odor of assafcetida is attractive to them, and a little 

 of this drug rubbed into the poisoned meat greatly heightens the chances of 

 their eating it. Since, after eating the poison, they suffer greatly from 

 thirst, it is well to place a tub of water conveniently at hand, which gener- 

 ally keeps them from making off for water, and so being lost. There is 

 considerable difference in the fur, both as to quality and color, according to 



