246 WOLVES

is sitting up on a knoll or some other place of vantage,
so that he can watch your movements in an apparently
unconcerned way, it is no easy matter to trick him, but
very occasionally, under exceptionally favourable con-
ditions, it can be done, Once, when riding with a friend,
we spotted a coyote sitting on a rock a little over a hundred
yards away. Of course he was watching us. My rifle
was slung across my shoulder, so, knowing it would be
useless to try and get it off while in sight of the coyote,
I determined to try for a shot by a ruse that came into
my mind. My first move was to advise my friend, who
happened to be ahead of me, to keep on going, but to bear
off to his right, away from the coyote, after he had passed
through a small patch of low bushes that were a few
yards ahead of us. Then taking my feet out of the
stirrups I gradually stooped lower and lower on the
opposite side of my horse to my proposed victim. When
the patch of brush was reached I rolled off my horse as
easily as possible, at the same time * chirping” to the
horse to keep him moving on after the other one. After
touching the ground I lay still until the horses had moved
on a good thirty yards, then, after getting my rifle ready,
I very cautiously raised myself into a shooting position.
My scheme worked perfectly. The coyote kept his eye
on the horses and gave me time to get in a fatal shot. —
He was only a young animal; one of more mature years
might not have been taken in.

Coyotes have a way of sensing the fighting qualities
of any dog that will chase them. You can lay a good
hound or any dog of courage on one of these animals,
and the latter’s main object will be speed. But if you
try the same thing with a dog that only makes a bluff
and really does not mean business, the coyote is quite
likely to lope away at a moderate pace, perhaps even
pretending to be lame and an easy prey. But when he
has drawn the dog off some distance he will allow himself
to be caught up with, and then will suddenly turn and
slash him, perhaps even kill him, with the wicked sharp
teeth he possesses.