Big Game Animals of the Yelloivstoue 433 



of the white man, with no foreign species of animals inserted and 

 no native ones excluded. How can we have a balanced Yellowstone 

 Park with the coyotes excluded ? The coyote may occasionally kill 

 a fawn, but only rarely. He is really a mouse catcher and you may 

 see him daily in the Park meadows searching for mice. He is our 

 weirdest carnivorous mammal and deserves a place in our parks and 

 our hearts. Anyone who has heard the song of a coyote, that un- 

 canny medley of diabolic sounds, realizes that he is a most unusual 

 animal, a serenader of really great charm and baffling melody. One 

 coyote sounds like a whole pack, either of coyotes or of evil spirits, 

 according to }"our mood. Ernest Thompson Seton has justly sung 

 the coyote's praise, and there is no man of our generation whose 

 sentiment in natural history has received wider acceptance. 



The coyote is shot on sight in the Yellowstone because the Park 

 officials have not yet conceived the idea of halancc in nature. They 

 have striven to have a park filled with elk and other hoofed game to 

 the exclusion of other interesting animals, or at least they have 

 l^laced emphasis on A'arious species as worthv of preservation and 

 condemned or looked inditlerently on others. Any coyote caught 

 killing fawns or lambs should, it is true, be separated from his spirit 

 at the point of a bullet as an undesirable denizen. The Park rangers 

 love to have some live object on which to try their markmanship and 

 the coyote is their legitimate prey under the present rules. I do not 

 blame the rangers. The}- have the hunter's instincts strongly de- 

 veloped and their love for animal life was acquired or developed in 

 the hunting field, where the prevailing idea has been to save only 

 the hoofed game, and solely for the hunter's owai killing and use. 



As a finale I wish to add that the song of the coyote is more wel- 

 come to me and dearer to my heart as a real expression of wild life 

 than the songs of most birds. ^Mlile in the Yellowstone Park I 

 heard several coyotes sing, and the voice of one I listened to in a 

 canyon was much amplified in volume and positively startling. As 

 they sing, their sharp little muzzles are pointed straight up heaven- 

 ward in the most approved ecclesiastical way. Any normal mouse- 

 hunting coyote (an animal with the voice of a devil as well as that 

 of a birdj should receive the protection and encouragement of every- 

 one. 



COUGAR OR MOUNTAIN LION 



Felis concolor liippolcsfcs iMerriam 



How can we s}'mpathize with an animal which is by habit stealthy, 

 exceedingly crafty but cowardly, usually voiceless, and which preys 

 whollv on game animals for its livelihood? A\'e could forgive it for 



