THE COYOTE. 
265 
seldom requires more than the “hump,” tongue, marrow-bones, and skin of the slaughtered 
bison, and leaves the remainder of the huge carcass for the Wolves. 
Another well-known American Wolf is the Coyote, or Cajote, in which there is some- 
thing of the vulpine aspect. In habits it resembles the other Wolves. According to European 
ideas, the flesh of the Wolf would be thought a very strange, and decidedly repulsive, article 
of diet. But it is found by those who have had practical experience on this subject, that the 
* Wolf, when properly dressed, affords a really excellent dinner, the tables being thus turned 
on him. The ribs are the portion which are most esteemed. 
Like many other wild animals, the Wolf will feign death when it has fallen into the hands 
of its pursuers, and finds that escape is impossible. So admirably will it achieve this feat 
that it has often deceived the experienced eyes of the hunter, and, taking advantage of an 
unguarded moment on his part, has made good its escape. How perseveringly the animal will 
enact his part maybe imagined from the description of a captive Wolf given by Captain Lyon, 
in his private journal. 
The Wolf had been brought on board apparently dead, but as the eyes were observed to 
wink when an object was passed rapidly before them, a rope was fastened to his hind-legs, and 
he was suspended from the rigging, with his head downwards. Suddenly he threw off all 
disguise, and began to snap viciously in all directions ; at one time aiming his attacks at the 
persons who surrounded him, and at another moment curling himself upwards and trying to 
bite the rope asunder. He was so very full of life that it required several heavy blows on his 
head, and the employment of a bayonet, to reduce him in reality to the state which he had 
previously been feigning. 
It was formerly supposed that the Wolf was an untamable animal, but it is now known 
that there are few creatures which are more susceptible of affection than the Wolf, if it be 
captured when young, and treated rightly. It will follow its master like a dog, will obey his 
orders readily, will recognize him after a long term of absence, and in all things conduct itself 
with a propriety that is not always found in the domesticated dogs. Several instances of this 
tamable disposition of the Wolf are well known. One such example is afforded by the tame 
Wolf which belonged to Mr. F. Cuvier, and which recognized him after an absence of 
three years. 
A Norwegian gentleman, named Grieff, “reared up two young Wolves until they were 
full-grown. They were male and female. The latter became so tame that she played with me, 
and licked my hands, and I had her often with me in the sledge in winter. Once when I was 
absent she got loose from the chain she was bound with, and was away for three days. When 
I returned home I went out on a hill, and called ‘ Where is my Tussa % ’ as she was named, 
when she immediately came home, and fondled with me like the most friendly dog. She could 
not bear other people, but the male, on the contrary, was friendly with others, but not with 
me, from the moment when he once seized a hen, and I whipped him with a carrier whip. 
As they were well treated, they got very large and had fine skins.” 
When Wolves and dogs are domesticated in the same residence, a mutual attachment will 
often spring up between them, although they naturally bear the bitterest hatred to each other. 
A mixed offspring is sometimes the result of this curious friendship, and it is said that these 
half-bred animals are more powerful and courageous than the ordinary dog. Mr. Palliser 
possessed a remarkably fine animal of this kind, the father of which was a white Wolf, and 
the mother an ordinary Indian dog. Its fur was white, like that of its Wolf -parent. 
When “Ishmah,” as the dog was named, was first purchased from its Indian owners, he 
was so terrified at the white face of his new master, that he always ran away whenever he saw 
him, and could not be persuaded to come within two hundred yards. Ishmah was then tied 
up with a cord, but the moment that he was left to himself he held the cord to the ground 
with his paw, severed it in an instant with his sharp teeth, leaped out of the window, and 
dashed off to his former owners. After awhile, however, he became reconciled to his white 
master, and proved to be a most faithful and useful ally ; dragging a small sledge that 
contained the heavier necessaries of a hunter’s life, and partaking with his master all the 
