The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-10

ueILul powers of VentrilOqulSm of th,
 coyote. had to keep the soldier in to
 paeeo all that campaign to be sure h,
 never told the army his coyote story or
 the latest tenderfoot lieutenant" | The coyote is joker and artful dod ger. The ranchmen tell how at times
 he has caused them to so miles in hil | pursuit by an artful change in his voice, while he meanwhile would slip tC
 the poultry house and snatch a fat hen | Old-time hunters never give heed to tht | hoWls of the coyotes at night because
 they know from unhappy experiences
 how easily they may be led on fools errand by sly old coyote, who would draw the hunters away from camp and then adroitly hasten there and make of With toothsome chunk The coyote
 knows how to employ a decoy and
 many rancher or settler tells how he
 has been lured out to shoot peculiarly
 noisy coyote, who has not only escaped
 but permitted another coyote to get a
 fowl from the roost during the chase.
 The coyote Is wag also, and, like
 most wags, he Is tlmid. Some people
 who do not know him well call him a
 sneaking coward. That is one reason why he is so unwisely and generally de- splsed. But the coyote is sensible enough to know that he is no match with his scant thirty pounds and with out claws or heavy jaws for man or a big beast. He must use artiflce to earn his livelihood, and he can escape de- struction only by outwftting mankind. Many generations of contact with men have made him remarkable beast. Nothing can be more ridiculous than to fear him. A hunter never thinks for a moment of an attack by coyotes any more than by rabbits. If there is any eatable about camp that may be craft fly stolen, 1t Is more than likely MT. Coyote will come there when he is least expected, but so much as wink of the eye will scare him away. The animals have been known to fill the air with a series of terrific howls, so as to distract the men in camp, while a confederate coyote approached stealthily in the darkness and dragged away ham that hung near the party.
 Curiosity is a prominent characteris- tic of the coyote. Monkeys and chim- panzees have the same trait. The cow boys, soldiers, miners and hunters on
 
 curiosity of coyotes. If a stampede of cattle occurs on plain, dozen places or vantage are likely to be occupied at once by coyotes, all sitting on their hind legs, like so many Interrogation points, while they watch the spectacle or the believing, cavorting cattle with deep interest. When the stampede be- comes so fierce that cattle are knocked down and trampled to death, the coyotes howl, even in the daytime at the prospect of a big meal off the fresh meat, while the cowboys have gone miles away with the maddened, pran- c1ng herd. Travellers in wagons across the plains have narratives of how coyotes have even sacrificed their lives to curiosity by coming within rifle range to see bit of bright color, as in lap-robe, or to observe strange ve- hicle. A horseman who may stop for a meal on the plains is likely to be watched with undying curiosity by at least one coyote. Any unusual sight, as that Of coffee making, pitching tent, currying horse, or unpacking a box or hamper sometimes holds the atten- ton of half dozen coyotes The wri- ter has seen several coyotes stand out Of gun range and watch with amusing eagerness the harnessing of horse or the cleaning of gun or the greasing of a wagon wheel.
 Among the only bits of humor in the folklore of the Indians of the southwest is a story about the great spirit coyote that once had jack-rabbit served to him. The coyote was already so full of food that he could eat no more. The fun lies in the fact that no living coyote ever declined to eat, for the coyote seems to have creed that he must not even dream of having had enough to eat. His main object in life seems to be to satisfy an abnormal appetite, and to this end he directs all the cunning md audacity of his nature. In the day. lime he sinks off to some retired cave 1r copse of trees and sleeps, but at night he joins his neighbors in search 1f food. The remains of the hunters ,r the campers supper are a tidbit to secure which he has been known to 'ollow party for miles. Impelled by hunger, or laboring under a mistake as 0 It's palatability, he will even enter a ent and make off with shoe or sock 1T the trousers of the luckless occu- )ant
 When a young coyote goes off on a oraging raid by himself and is so lucky IS to catch an unsuspecting sheep or a alf out for a moonlight stroll, he will | lrst suck the blood of his victim, and | hen, dragging the carcass to a shady l md unfrequented retreat will devour 1 he choice morsels first. Before he has nished he will gorge many pounds of | he more substantial parts, until he re- embles a sack of coal on four spindle | egs A coyote has been known to eat | is own wtlght In meat in a day and a fight. Not particle of the coyotes east Is ever allowed to go to waste, for yhen he is stuffed he will seize the emnants of the carcass in his mouth, nd throwing 1t across his back will tart for the family abode, where the est of the family may eat also. Hunt rs tell of having found coyotes so orged and heavy with food that their istended sides made 1t impossible for hem to enter their burrows and holes. are the principal food of oyotes, and both animals are provided 'ith muscles of locomotion that are larvelous. There are few things in ature so swift as coyote following a alifornia jack-rabbit across a plain.
 fleeing jack-rabbit can make mile inute for one or two miles, old plains len say.
 "The coyote is the most misunder-