THE COYOTE OR TKAIHIE VVOI.K 



561 



teach the young to hunt and during the summer and fall they join 

 with other families to form the pack. It is stated by some observers 

 that the male and female remain mated for life, but this has not 

 been certainly established. 



Deer constituted a large portion of the food of wolves in the 

 primeval forests. They were probably fleeter than the wolves on 

 solid ground, but were easily captured where the snow was deep 

 and crusted slightly so that it bore the weight of the wolves but 

 allowed the sharp hoofs of the deer to break through. At other 

 times the habit of hunting in packs made it possible for some of the 

 wolves to turn the deer from a straight course while others could 

 cut across the angles made by the quarry, and so head it off. Rab- 

 bits, ground-squirrels, mice and birds also furnished food for the 

 wolves and nothing in the way of flesh or carrion is refused in time 

 of hunger. 



CANIS LATRANS Say. 

 COYOTE; PRAIRIE WOLF. 



Canis latrans Say, Long's Exped. to the Rocky Mts., I, p. 168, 

 1823. 



Hahn, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 32, p. 462, 1907 

 Diagnostic characters. — Smaller than the timber wolf, with fur 

 yellowish gray, grizzled with black. 



Description. — Long fur of back fulvous, v^ith black tips ; under 

 fur gray ; head more brownish ; back of ears reddish brown ; legs 

 tawny ; tail the same color as the back except on the under part at 

 the base, where the black tips of the hairs are not found; soles of 

 feet black. The above description is taken from two specimens 

 killed in Jasper County, three miles north of McCoysburg, by 0. W. 

 Bussel on May 16, 1906, and sent by him to the National Museum at 

 Washington. 



Measurements. — Measurements taken from the above mentioned 

 specimens in the flesh are as follows: Adult male, total length, 

 1,095 mm. (43 inches) ; tail, 165 mm. (6I/2 in.) ; hind foot, 195 mm. 

 (7% in.) ; ear from crown, 105 mm. (4% in.) ; height at shoulder, 

 560. mm. (22 in.). Adult female, total length, 1,040 mm. (41 in.) ; 

 tail, 130 mm. (5% in.) ; hind foot, 185 mm. (714 in.) ; ear, 110 mm. 

 (4% in.) ; height at shoulder, 500 mm. (20 in.). 



Sknll and teeth. — The skull resembles that of the timber wolf 

 in its more prominent features but is smaller. 



Range. — Coyotes are distributed from Indiana to the Pacific 

 Ocean and from Central America to within 300 miles of the Arctic 

 [3G] 



