102 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
dry burrow, or prepares a den among loose rocks. 
The dutte districts of the upper Missouri and 
lower Colorado valleys are therefore his strong- 
holds. There the decay of sandstone strata, and 
the breakage due to volcanic eruptions and upheav- 
als, give him the choice of a large number of cran- 
nies, while the desolation and remoteness of wide 
tracts untenanted by men still afford him the seclu- 
sion he covets. 
In such seclusion his young family of from five 
to eight pups is brought forth during the latter 
part of spring, the date varying with the latitude. 
It is just before and after the birth of the puppies 
that the old dog-coyotes work their hardest and 
the most systematically. In hunting at this time 
our wolf adds to his ordinary pertinacity and zeal, 
the sagacity and endurance necessary to turn his 
victims and drive them back as near as possible to 
his home, knowing that otherwise his mate and 
her weaklings will be unable to partake of the 
feast. 
A remarkable picture of this was given some 
years ago in an English magazine (unfortunately 
I have lost the exact reference) by a traveller who, 
in one of the best “animal chapters” it has ever 
been my privilege to read, detailed a chase of this 
kind as witnessed by him in the grand forests 
near Lake Nicaragua. 
The traveller and his Indian hunter-companion 
had discovered, just before encamping for the 
