92 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
it, turned and hurried back to the starting place. 
Going closer I discovered that she had a young 
kid with her. This was being watched by a 
near-by coyote. A part of the time he laid 
near. If the antelope drove him off he at once 
returned and paced back and forth dangerously 
near the kid. Some animal had already secured 
one of her young, and I fear that the coyote wore 
the mother out and feasted on the other. 
The gray wolf often kills wantonly—kills for 
fun, when food is not needed. Rarely, I think, 
does the coyote do this. In times of plenty he 
becomes an actor and gives plays and concerts; 
but if fate provides an excess of food he is likely 
to cache or store it. A miner lost half a sheep 
from his pack horse. Half an hour later I 
went along his trail and discovered a coyote 
burying a part of this, covering it by means of 
his nose, like a dog. He had eaten to round- 
ness and had nothing in his outlines to suggest 
the lean wolf. 
He eats about everything that has any food 
value—meat, fruit, grasses, and vegetables in 
all stages of greenness and ripeness. He has 
the bad habit of killing young big game; cap- 
turing birds and robbing their nests; raiding 
barnyards for chickens, ducks, and turkeys; 
and sometimes he feeds on sheep and occasion- 
ally kills a calf. Often he catches a fish or frog, 
