The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-03-02
THE CUNNING COYOTE
SOME OF THE FOXY TRAITS OF THE
AMERICAN WILD DOG.

Captures His Prey-Uscs to Which
He Puts His VentriloQuistic Yelp.
A Vicious Fighter When COrnered.
One Of the interesting and typical ami
mails of the far west is the American
wild dog, lowland wolf or coyote (Canis
latrans), it being known under these and
other titles. While a very common ami
NAL, it is rarely well figured in the books
and is made to look more foxlike than
wolfsh. A wolf the coyote is, lowland
form, and every traveller through the
west who has wandered from the beaten
paths or visited small places knows it
well.
The coyote is virtually a wild dog and
breeds with the domestic dog, and dogs
will often refuse to injure the female coy
ote. The writer observed this once on
the mesa near Pasadena when in full
chase after coyote with pack of grey
and stag hounds. One of the dogs reach
ed the game, but instead of seiZing it, as
usual, ran along by the side of the coyote,
which was q female. Huxley contends
that there is no material difference be-
tween the skull of a coyote and that of
a dog, and a cross between collie and
an Eskimo dog produces very fair coy
ote, so far as appearances go.
Don Coyote" is essentially night an
imal, and my Observations of the living
animal were made chiefly in the saddle
in full chase after him in the dull early
morning, and | can commend his speed,
which Is greater than that Of the fox.
When the sun goes down, Don Coyote
comes out of his haunts into the foot
hills and wanders down around or in the
settlements. He lies in the spurs of the
hills and mountains in southern Califor-
MIA, as in the San Gabriel valley. in some
safe and inaccessible point, and surveys
the country, his vision perhaps directed
to some henroost or the home of some
fat turkey.
At such times have occasionally seen
him, his fur an almost perfect protection
in its resemblance to the rocks that sur
rounded him, and that he recognizes this
was shown in one instance when l rode
within 30 feet of one, pretending to look
directly ahead, but watching him out of
the corner of my eye. lie crouched as l
approached and seemed confident that i
did not see him imperccptibly moving,
ever keeping his head pointed toward
me, and few would have recognized in
the gray rock q coyote.
On the outskirts Of Pasadena, city of
$4,000 inhabitants, where my observa-
tons have been made, l often hear his
weird. ventriloquistic yelp in the deep
wooded Arroyo Scco, where the wildcat
and lynx also roam. He comes boldly up
the bordering streets, cvading the dogs
the best he can, now giving them wild
chase, then stopping in some vacant lot
and defying the town and, with head
aloft, yelping at the moon. At such
times. owing to the ventriloQuistic quail
ties referred to, one coyote can create the
impression in the mind of a householder
or camper that he is surrounded by
pack. The yelps come in such quick sue
cession that they fairly overrun one an
other and seem echoed back and repeated
from every hill, rock and bluff. In this
way q single coyote will arouse the peo-
pie as he sneaks along, every dog on the
alert, yet on the morrow the remains of
some plump turkey will be found in the
road, telling the story of this crafty foe
man.
In such trips the coyote is generally
alone, and l have met him on the out
skirts of the town sinking home in the
early morning, perhaps under the protec-
ton of the heavy fog. Often there is a
mirage, and at distance of n few hun
dred feet Don Coyote looks as large as
sheep looming up in the mist. Generally
he stops, turns and stands, q rigid pic
ture for a moment, perhaps wondering
what the moving object is; then, con-
WINGED that it is an enemy, he turns and
runs for the Puente hills with marvellous
speed. ! give Don Coyote credit for
much intelligence, rs on one occasion Mt
least he led hounds and horses out of the
way TO barbed wire fence, passing I'M
der it himself, but witnessing the COM
pletc Generalization of the hunt as he
bounded away.
While the coyote hunts singly in towns
or villages, he runs in packs in the open,
and it is here that he demonstrates his
skill and cunning. A friend of mine OBJ
served pack of coyotes on the edge Of
n desert manipulating n jack rabbit.
They swept across the country in a line,
soon starting hare, then formed in two
parallel lines about 200 feet apart. There
was regular plan of action, and none Of
the coyotes seemed overcxcited, but when
the hare was started they wheeled into
columns, like soldiers, the leading coyote
running at the top of his speed. After a
few minutes he dropped to the rear, and
fresh coyote took the lead, and this was
kept until the hare was run down. The
chase was silent one. The method re-
calls the wild dog CT Australia. or dingo.
While the coyote is invariably written
down as q coward, and it is true that
either singly or in packs he will not at.
tack man or beast larger than himself,
when cornercd he is vicious fighter. !
have seen one fight off n pack of grey
hounds, wounding them so that 10 save
the dogs the hunter was obliged to finish
the animal. The coyote in this instance
had run at least two miles at race horse
speed and when reached by the hunters
was backed up against a rock, swapping
his jaws Mt his crazcd antagonist, his
teeth sounding like a steel trap as they
came together and taking n piece of flesh
whenever they hit the mark.
The jack rabbit, a famous girdlcr of
young trees and an all around enemy to
the agriculturist, without q rcdecming
feature, is the natural food of the coy
ote, which does not disdain the ground
squirrel The coyote is also snake eater
even attacking the rattlcenakc In q
word, he is valuable scavcngrr and an
animal to be preserved. 1t is true lie has
weakness for turkeys and chickens and
sometimes dimes upon small lambs on the
edge of large flocks, yet the losses are
inconsiderabe compared to the ravagcs
the rabbits are guilty of in San Joaquin
and San Gabriel valleys and which they
would accomplish if not kept down by
the coyote.
Don Coyote can be tanned. and know
of one instance where IL herder kept one
that was apparently as tame as dog
Professor Charles Frederick Holder in