190 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



ly against a large pack of prairie- 

 wolves. 



These large lobos and the coyote, 

 the old Texan further stated, be- 

 came so numerous all over Bexar 

 county that a bitter and relentless 

 war was waged throughout Texas 

 to exterminate the wolf pest, and 

 the large lobo wolf was nearly an- 

 nihilated after many years of con- 

 tinued warfare. And still, later, 

 and even todav the lobo wolf is 



fowls also were not molested. Ven- 

 ison of all kind, which now was 

 safe against the annihilation of the 

 bloodthirsty lobo and coyote 

 wolves, propagated so rapid- 

 ly that West Texas was pro- 

 claimed as a great hunting para- 

 dise; and never before, nor after- 

 ward, was venison so abundantly 

 to be had. The wolves were kill- 

 ed either with poison or the trap. 

 The farmers bought strychnine 



Face View of Texas Prairie Wolf 



doing its deadly maraudin"- night- 

 work, especially around sheep and 

 cattle ranches. It was also re- 

 ported by some other* reliable au- 

 thority that in all the coyote his- 

 tory of West Texas never before 

 fewer wolves existed than in the 

 year 1888. At that time a bunch 

 of lambs could be left in all the 

 safety against the wolves, and the 



by the pound and this poison gen- 

 erally was carried in a buckskin 

 satchel and properly -prepared and 

 distributed. 



Other wild animals in Texas 

 have decreased so much in the 

 last thirty years that stringent 

 state laws had to be inaugurated 

 in order to protect the little game 

 that is left; and it is a fact that 



