Dbo. 36, 1868.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
511 
THE 
From FoBBBT AND SxBEAM Animal 
position is an injustice to the bird and to myself, and 
without a doubt this particular specimen wandered up 
from the S^uth entirely of its ovtq volition and lins;ered 
about the Park for my sppclal benefit — a sort of Cbristmas 
present a little previous in the delivery. And thus you 
Bee from this short sketch of winter bird life that "every 
cloud has a silver lining," and though in these closing 
d^ys of the old year the tide is out and the sky is cold and 
dark, that after a brief period of "frost and storm and 
cloudiness" the soft, reviving glow of spring will over- 
spread the sky and the southern ocean will send back its 
waves— waves of thrushes, finches, warblers and the rest 
— birds of woodland, shore and sea; many of them doubly 
welcome as old friends, with here and there a stranger in 
the throng to give the zest of novelty; and as courier of 
all the host, like a benediction of dying winter on the 
head of spring, hope's special messenger, the song spar- 
row. 
PoPLAE PUlCK, New Rochelle, N. Y., Dec. 17. 
ABOUT WOLVES AND COYOTES. 
In the Western country there is a very large class of 
people who take an active interest in wolves, and it 
seems worth while that whatever each one of us knows 
about them should be put on record. In the West in 
buffalo times no one ever heard of a wolf's doing any 
harm to anyone except now and then to chew rawhide 
ropes and harness, but as the buflfalo were driven from 
one and another section of the country these animals 
began to prey on the domestic stock which grazed upon 
the pastures formerly occupied by the wild ruminants. 
As wolves began to be troublesome, people who had 
heard of the old-time industry of wolfing took to poison- 
ing them, since,' as a rule, they are much too smart to be 
trapped and too wary to be shot. Pretty soon, however, 
the wolves became so sharp that they would not take a 
poisoned bait, or if they did take it, for some reason or 
other the poison failed to work. At all events, the car- 
casses were not found. Colts, calves and larger animals 
were, and still are, killed in great numbers on the Western 
ranges, and, of course, sheep are also killed — usually, it is 
said, merely for fun, as the big wolves seldom eat the 
mutton. 
Few people have any idea how powerful an animal the 
gray wolf is. He may not stand much taller than a good- 
sized setter dog, but he is longer and heavier, and is made 
of a sort of combination of wire and rawhide which 
never tires and can get over the ground very rapidly. 
After a time, when poisoning seemed to prove ineffect- 
ive, a good many people in the West got greyhounds, 
Eussian wolfhounds, stag hounds and other dogs, with 
which they tried to kill off the wolves on their ranges. 
No doubt many wolves have been killed by this mfans, 
certainly many coyotes have, but it does not prove effect- 
ive. In a level country, where the going is good, dogs 
can overtake and kill wolves, but they must be powerful 
animals,, must be regularly trained to the work, and there 
must be two or three of them to each wolf. I heard not 
long ago of a man who started two wolfhounds after six 
gray wolves. Of course, it is impossible to imagine what 
he expected the doga to do. Tbey overtook the wolves 
with little diflSoulty, and then these turned on the dogs 
and ate them up. In a rough mountain country dogs are 
of little use, because they become footsore and hurt 
themselves and can no longer overtake the wolves. Thus 
the problem for the stockman seems one not easily to be 
solved". 
There are some men who still believe in poisoning. 
Such a man a year or two ago told me that one of his 
men had driven thirty-one miles from the rauch; to the 
railroad, and dragging a fresh beef hide and throwing 
out baits, found along the road on his return a day or 
two later twtnty-eigbt wolves and coyotes. Others be- 
lieve in dogs, and faithfully ride afttr them or hire some 
one else to do so. Others still arrange traps and snares. 
A cruel trap, but one which is said to be effective with 
coyotes, isUo hang a gang of large and heavy fish- 
hooks attached to a wire line from the branch of a 
tree or a spring pole. The hooks, baited with meat, are 
iield BO high above the ground that the animal must 
rise on its hindlegs to grasp the bait, and when he does 
BO the^ielding brfoicb or spring pole holds him — tar 
ooYorfi. 
Series. Drawn by E. S. Thompson. 
awhile. A few people know how to trap wolves, but 
the number caught in this way cannot be large. 
It is said that rangps where wolves are parsistently 
chased, or where a few have been suricessfully trapped, 
will, after a short time, be absolutely deserted by the 
remaining wolves, who migrate to some other section 
of the country where they ptpi less disturbed, I heard 
this autumn of a place in Wyoming called the Settle- 
ments which had been troubled for a year or two by 
wolves. At length one of the men devoted some time to 
trapping them, and succeeded in catching three, and 
shortly afterward the wolves disappeared from the npigh- 
borhood, and immediately another region about thirty 
miles west, where there had before been none, began to 
be troubled by them. Here they did much harm, killing 
in a couple of months, besides mary rang;e cattle, twenty- 
one cows and calves immediately about the settlers' 
houses, animals that were kept for milk. 
The wisdom of the coyote is proverbial. An example 
of this happened not long ago on the ranch. We have a 
yellow sheep dog named Shep who very much delights 
in chasing coyotes, jack rabbits or antelope, He never 
catches any of these creatures, but he always chases 
them, and after he has run himself down comes back 
with lolling tongup and mnrtified air. The coyotes often 
come up within 150 or 200yd8, of the house during the 
day, and whenever the dcg sees them he chases them out 
of eight. If they do not take the trouble to run fast for 
him, he overtakes them and there is a fight. At night 
the coyotes come immediately up to the door, and can be 
heard all about the house and buildings, and at this time 
the dog is kept busy chasing them. 
Not very long ago the coyotes appeared to have made 
up their minds that they wanted to get rid of this dog. 
About 9 o'clock at night one of them came to the kitchen 
door and howled. The dog rushed out after him and the 
coyote ran away, looking over his shoulder. He ran 
down toward one of the corrals and around behind the 
blacksmith's shop into the garden, and the dog followed 
him at the tap of his speed. Behind the blacksmith's 
Bhrp and waiting for the dog were six or 'seven other 
coyotes, who at once pitched into the pursuer and pro- 
ceeded to worry him. Tae noise of the fight led B.lly 
to seize his gun and rush out there, and he saw this snarl- 
ing, writhing mass of anima,ls on the ground. Ha could 
not shoot for fear of killing the dog, but at his yells 
the coyotes scattered and disappeared. He w^s only just 
in time to save Shep, who was badly cut up. Since that 
time Shep's interest in coyotes has somewhat lessened. 
He will chase a single one with his old. vigor, but if a 
second appears he returns to the house. 
A few weeks ago, while riding out to look at a bunch 
of cattle, I saw as I rode, going over a little hill near the 
house, a coyote down in the next valley, and with the 
coyote was a badger. I had no gun, and the coyote 
seemed to know it, for he paid no attention, to me, but 
appeared to be playing with the badger. He would 
prance around it, make a feint of biting it, and then run 
off a little way, the badger immediately running after 
him. This he did until the badger had gone 60 or TOyds., 
when I got so near the two that the badcpr saw me and 
ran into a hole and the coyote trotted cff 40 or.SO/ds. and 
lay down. I did not comprehend just what was going on, 
but it was evident either that the two animals were play- 
ing together or else that the wolf was te;i.«ing the badger. 
Attprward,in speaking of the matter to B lly^ be gave me 
his theory concerning it. He had several times seen a 
game of this description, and his idea was that the coyote 
was teasing the ba<iger and making it angry. lb is well 
known that the badger is troubled with a natural short- 
ness of temper, and will fight, as the saymg is, "at the 
drop of a hat." The coyote's device was to make the 
badger so angry that it would follow him, and to lead it 
along until a second coyote was met with, when the two 
would attack the badger, kill it and eat it. Tiie explana- 
tion seems to me a plausible one. 
Last summer, while we were haying, an interesting ex- 
ample of a natural pointer was seen not far from the 
house. The loaded hay wagon was coming back from 
one of the meadows when a coyote was seen 40 or 50yds. 
from the road apparently on a dead point. He was 
standing absolutely siill, his nose and tail straight out in 
a line, and one forefoot lifted from the ground. Just be- 
fore him there was a very slight rise of ground, but the 
men who were riding on top of the load of hay could see 
over this, and saw that he was pointing a prairie dog 
which was feeding near its hole, just on the other side of 
the elevation. They were so interested in the sight that 
they stopped the wagon and watched. Every little while 
the prairie dog would sit up and look about, and when he 
did this the coyote would stand absolutely without mo- 
tion. When the dog dropped down on all four feet and 
began to feed the coyote wou'd very slowly and afcealthily 
creep up a few feet nearer This thing went on for some 
minutes, the dog not seeming to notice the coyote, which 
at the last must have been in plain sight. The last time 
the dog dropped down to feed, the coyote made a swift 
rush, covering 12 or 15ft,, picked the little animal up, and 
then for the first time noticing the hay wagon stood for 
a moment with his prey hanging across his mouth and 
then trotted slowly off up the hill. 
These coyotes are as impudent and unconcerned as pos- 
sible when you don't happen to have a gun with you. 
Last autumn I saw them lie down within thirty or forty 
steps of me just to wait until I had passed by, and, as I 
said, at night they come up all around the house. They 
seem to kill a good many colts, especially the young and 
weak ones, and I suppose that the way they do it is to go 
in bands, and while some tease the mare others jump in 
and kill the colt. The habit of relieving each other in 
chasing antelope and jick rabbits is. of course, well 
known. Last winter Billy reported to me that he saw 
two of them on a big piece of ice bothering a big wolf. 
The ice was slippery and they could get started and could 
turn much more quickly than their larger cousin. One 
of them would go m front of him and annoy him while 
the other ran past him from behind and nipped him as it 
went by. Then the big wolf would try to turn and chase 
the little one, but he would slip, and before he fairly got 
started would get a nip from the other. So they worried 
THE WOLF. 
Pram FoaptT and SiaEAM Animal Series. Drawn by B. S TJiompsoa. 
