The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-04

growled and fought over it and bit one another, just as Nature intended they should. But two of them were much more aggressive than the others, and in the struggles for food always came oil victorious. The other two appar- ently became quite resigned to this condition of affairs. and, after a time did not presume to touch the food un- til their more warIike brethren had taken all they wanted. But even then they were not allowed to live in peace; their savage kinsmen would not even tolerate their presence, and fought them whenever they came near. So, recognizing Natures law of the sur vival of the Attest, had the two who were leading but a miserable existence taken away and shot by a marksman, and kept the two which were all wolf. The pair were always on excellent terms with each other. playing like boys when together, and unhappy and whining the moment they were sepaF- ated. Death" and "Dauntless' they were named, and they have grown to
 be handsome, powerful brutes. both gray, but Death a much darker gray EAAN'AA HIS NOAAlydAAlQAAs AO AAAV b4ASJ EAAC gentle as any dogs could be, except 1 that they will not be handled when
 feeding on raw meat. I have prairie wolf which will stand even this severe test of canine good-nature, finding it painfully necessary to bite only when
 I try to take from him some freshly
 killed animal. But it's hands off'
 when the young timber wolves are
 feeding. and the splendid array of ivor- . ies they exhibit offers very good ar 1 gument in favor of letting them alone
 at meal time. With this exception I 1 can go up to them and play with them day or night, and handle them as I please, without the slightest fear of be- | ing bitten. They are very playful too, and while am engaged with .one the other will run up behind me, seize my 1 coat in his teeth, and try to pull me
 over backwards.
 1 What they seem to enjoy most is a romp with "Romulus,' the prairie wolf,
 whose liberty has been curtailed since
 he was caught in the act of tearing
 down a deer. To prevent more trage- l dies of this sort, I put the coyote on a chain, the last link of which runs upon
 8 long wire stretched across the or chard. Here take the young timber
 wolves occasionally and a more de- 1 lighted trio it would be hard to im- l agine. They wag their tails, smile and
 whine affectionately, the coyote dash
 ing from end to end of his wire with
 the timber wolves in hot pursuit. Then
 Romulus will stand quite still and shut 1 t.S nIAfo r.iar
 his ears and lick his fur all over. And 1 it is great fun to lie out there under
 the apple trees and romp with the three
 of them, rolling them over on the
 ground and tossing apples for them to race after.
 But after a frolic of this kind their love of absolute liberty asserts itself and it is often necessary to use both
 patience and strategy in order to catch l them.
 1 I have never dared to turn the tiln- Der wolves loose to roam at their own sweet will as I used to do with my coyote, for a pair of animals powerful enough to kill an OK are not safe un- 1 less under complete control. So have I two pens for them; one under a roof WHlGn lilSH OCGAEJ dG llA3AAl, ollA lAlG
 other, made of strong wire netting. in which they ronip during the daytime. Usually, my assistant escorts the wolves from one9to the other while it | is light, that he may see what he is doing, but the other day he was of I in the woods until after rlightfall, and
 when he attempted to handle the anil
 mals in the dark they got away from
 him. He called them in his most
 coaxing tones, but they would not per Init him to lay. hands on themst This was at eight o'clock, and it was out of the question to think of leaving them
 free all night, for there was no telling what damage they might do before daylight So there was nothing for it
 but to watch and wait, and this we
 did with what patience we could com
 mand. Of the two. there was more
 waiting than watching, for the night
 was dark, and it was only occasionally
 that the gray brothers came within
 the circle of light shed by our lantern.
 I knew that one of the first things they
 would do would be to visit the prairie wolf, so to the orchard we went, and found the runaways already on. the ground. Calling the coyote to me l
 hoped that his cousins would follow him close enough to permit me to catch them but they seemed to understand 1 the situation pretty well, and calmly 1 set or their haunches just out of my reach and waited for their companion l to come back to them. But I held him I by the collar, and at length, tired of waiting, they ran away across the
 fields, and I followed, trying to keep them in sight. They disappeared over
 a stone wall which skirted a road
 but here we soon found their foot l prints in the mud, and were able to l follow with confidence. The footprints lad tn q fn ,,,o,rr, rd and hnra. i1hrt. as