MAMMALS— OANID^E— CANIS LATEANS. 47 



the season. In the winter, it is fuller, thicker, and softer than in summer, 

 and has much less tawny or rufous about it, being almost entirely black and 

 grizzled grayish white. 



"Except under certain circumstances, there is a chronic feud between 

 our domestic dogs and these dog-wolves. A good-sized dog will easily 

 whip a Coyote", thoixgh he may not come off unscathed from the sharp teeth 

 and quick snaps of the latter. I have known a smallish terrier even to kill 

 a Coyote", of which he caught a throat-hold, enabling him by vigorous 

 shakes to beat in the wolf's skull against some bowlders between which the 

 conflict took place. N otwithstanding, there is abundant evidence that the 

 Coyote" will cross and bear fertile offspring with the domestic dog; and I 

 believe the female of either will take the male of the other. During the 

 season of heat, which is in spring, I have known dogs to disappear for 

 several days, and return in such a dilapidated condition as to leave no 

 doubt they had been decoyed away by some female Coyote", and received 

 hard treatment from her or her relatives. The hybrid is said to possess the 

 bad qualities of both parents, and the good ones of neither, as usual with 

 bastards, and to always remain snappish and intractable, spite of severity 

 or kindness. The gestation of the species, as is well known, does not 

 differ materially from that of its allies. It brings forth in May or in June, 

 in secluded places, usually under or among rocks. Five or six puppies are 

 ordinarily produced at a birth. 



" A variety of absurd stories regarding its reproduction pass current 

 among even the best-informed backwoodsmen ; many affirming that the 

 pups are born shapeless, inchoate masses, to be afterward licked into 

 proper shape by the mother." — (Am. Xat. i, 1867, 289, -et seq.) 



"A large amount of fresh material, gathered on the Upper Missouri, 

 may furnish some data bearing upon the question, now agitated, of the re- 

 semblance of the Coyote to the clog of the Bronze Period. The examina- 

 tion is made of about twenty skins with skulls, and several specimens in the 

 flesh. I compare them with a dog very nearly of the same size, selecting 

 for this purpose a thorough- bred pointer — an animal which, in its enlarged 

 brain-box, shortened muzzle, pendulous lips, long, loose, silky, drooping 



