MAMMALS. 83 



the past 20 years, where they have ranged up and down the edge of 

 the Plams killing cattle and some horses, and in 1914 he saw their 

 tracks on St. Mary Ridge at the park line. There are said to be some 

 in the North Fork Valley, where it is probable they are attracted by 

 the abundance of deer, as they are on the eastern border by the 

 abundance of domestic stock. In 1895 they seemed to be no more 

 common than at the present time, as I saw then only a few tracks 

 on the prairie below St. Mary Lake, and some fine skins among the 

 Indians on the Blackfeet Reservation. 



As the valleys settle up, more vigorous hunting and trapping is 

 likely to crowd the wolves back into the park at any time and make 

 them more numerous than they are at present. If so, their de- 

 struction of game will be correspondingly increased, and the sheep, 

 goats, deer, elk, and moose will suffer from their depredations. If 

 unmolested they seem to prefer the domestic stock where it is 

 abundant and easily accessible, but, if a supply of beef can not be 

 obtained, they readily take to the game trails and will hunt success- 

 fully either in the woods or in the open. It is to be hoped that their 

 abundance can be controlled and their presence in the park practi- 

 cally eliminated before many years. 



Northern Coyote: Canis lafrans Say. — The big, northern, brown 

 coyote seems to be the predominant species in the mountains of 

 Glacier Park, but it is not improbable that the smaller, paler nehra- 

 censis enters at least the lower, more open valleys on the east. As 

 no specimens are available from the park or immediate vicinity, the 

 determination of the form must rest upon the large size and dark 

 color of the individuals seen in the park. They are surprisingly 

 common in the elevated interior, where their tracks and signs were 

 daily seen along the trails, over the passes, and even along sheep and 

 goat trails above timberline. One seen on July 31 picking its way 

 over the rocks across the lower end of Blackfeet Glacier was in 

 the thin summer coat of dark grizzled brown, but was not thin and 

 skinny as summer individuals usually are. He looked plump and 

 well fed and was so large that I looked closely to see if he were not 

 a wolf. The tracks seen along the trails, about Gunsight Lake, in 

 Piegan Pass, along the Swiftcurrent Creek, both forks of Kennedy 

 Creek, the Belly River valley, about Elizabeth and Glenn Lakes, in 

 the Waterton Lake valley, the whole length of the North Fork Val- 

 ley, about Lake McDonald, and over Kootenai Pass and Flat Top 

 Mountain were generally large. Along the side of Gable Mountain 

 a track had followed sheep trails over the snow banks for several 

 miles. In other places the animals followed the trails for long dis- 

 tances through heavy timber, where they seemed to be as much at 

 home as in the open above or below timberline. 



