150 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
entire State and become a serious pest. It has been able to 
learn by experience to such a degree as to become adapted 
to the man relation. In so far as we are able to judge, this 
adaption has been almost wholly of a mental character. The 
coyote is intelligent and teachable and has solved for itself 
the problems that it had to face. In this it is like its relative, 
the red fox. Just what change has taken place in the coyote's 
habits, I am unable to say. The animals still hunt in packs 
and they still molest poultry and other small domestic animals. 
ut they seem to have learned to avoid traps and poison and 
to spend most of their time at a distance from human habita- 
ions 
The red fox was referred to above as an example of a 
species that has become adapted to the manrelation, but the 
gray fox differing very little from the red in size and habits, 
has been gradually decreasing in all parts of the State. The 
two species are not very closely related in spite of their ex- 
ternal resemblance. The gray species is unquestionably a 
native of the region, while the red is not, and may even be 
an importation from Europe. If the latter supposition is the 
true one, the species has been gradually acquiring the ability 
to live in close proximity to man during his progress from 
savagery to civilization, instead of having to acquire it in a 
few generations after man had already learned the use of guns 
and traps i 
THE SMALLER CARNIVORA. 
Under this head we may include the raccoon and all of 
the members of the family Mustellidae, although some of the 
latter are nearly equal in size to the foxes. 
e 
although it commits some depredations on poultry and its skin 
has some commercial value. It is a forest dweller and its 
natural habitat has been largely destroyed, but it is adaptable 
plete extermination of otters in our State. They frequent 
water courses, and have regular pathways along the banks, 
