Canis Latrans, Description by Thomas Say

Note

The excerpted material is from Chapter IX of the account, which notes that the information is taken from the journal of Thomas Say and that the events transpired in the vicinity of Council Bluffs. Say served as zoologist on this expedition. His account of the coyote is the first to place the animal within the Linnaean taxonomy as canis latrans.

Say’s narrative is complemented by the drawing “Prarire Wolf In Distress” by Titian Ramsay Peale, who worked as an assistant naturalist on the exhibition. ***

The prairie wolves roam over the plains in considerable numbers, and during the night, the principal season of their hunts, they venture very near to the encampment of the traveller. They are by far the most numerous of our wolves, and often unite in packs for the purpose of chasing deer, which they very frequently succeed in running down, and killing. This, however, is an achievement attended with much difficulty to them, and in which the exertion of their utmost swiftness and cunning, are so often unavailing, that they are sometimes reduced to the necessity of eating wild plums, and other fruits, to them almost indigestible, in order to distend the stomach, and appease in a degree the cravings of hunger.

Their bark is much more distinctly like that of the domestic dog, than of any other animal; in fact the first two or three notes could not be distinguished from the bark of a small terrier, but these notes are succeeded by a lengthened scream.

The wonderful intelligence of this animal, is well worthy of note, and a few anecdotes respecting it may not be amiss. Mr. Peale constructed and tried various kinds of traps to take them, one of which was of the description called “ a live trap,” a shallow box reversed, and supported at one end, by the well known kind of trap sticks, usually called the “figure four,” which elevated the front of the trap upwards of three feet above its slab flooring; the trap was about six feet long, and nearly the same in breadth and was plentifully baited with offal. Notwithstanding this arrangement, a wolf actually burrowed under the flooring, and pulled down the bait through the crevices of the floor; tracks of different sizes were observed about the trap. This procedure would seem to be the result of a faculty beyond mere instinct. This trap proving useless, another was constructed in a different part of the country, formed like a large cage, but with a small entrance on the top, through which the animals might enter, but not return; this was equally unsuccessful; the wolves attempted in vain to get at the bait, as they would not enter by the route prepared for them.

A large double “steel trap” was next tried; this was profusely baited, and the whole, with the exception of the bait, was carefully concealed beneath the fallen leaves. This was also unsuccessful. Tracks of the anticipated victims, were next day observed to be impressed in numbers on the earth near the spot, but still the trap, with its seductive charge, remained untouched. The bait was then removed from the trap, and suspended over it from the branch of a tree; several pieces of meat were also suspended in a similar manner, from trees in the vicinity; the following morning the bait over the trap, alone remained. Supposing that their exquisite sense of smell, warned them of the position of the trap, it was removed and again covered with leaves, and the baits being disposed as before, the leaves to a considerable distance around were burned, and the trap remained perfectly concealed by ashes; still the bait over the trap was avoided. Once only this trap was sprung, and had fastened for a short time upon the foot of a species, which was shot the following day at no great distance; it proved to be a species distinct from the prairie wolf, and we have described it under the name of C. nubilus.

In no respect disheartened by these futile attempts, many times repeated, and varied in every obvious manner, another scheme was executed, which eventuated in complete success. This was the log trap, in which one log is elevated above another at one end, by means of an upright stick, which rests upon a rounded horizontal trigger stick, on the inferior log.

The latrans does not diffuse the offensive odour, so remarkable in the two species of jackalls, (C. aureus and C.anthus) though in many respects it resembles those animals. Like the Mexicanus, the hair on the vertebral line is elongated; and we should be disposed to regard it as the same animal, but it differs from the description of that species, both in colour and physiognomy. The ears are proportionally longer than those of C. cancrivorus, and, as well as the tail, shorter than the corresponding parts of C. mesomelas. This animal, which does not seem to be known to naturalists, unless it should prove to be the mexicanus, is most probably the original of the domestic dog, so common in the villages of the Indians of this region, some of the varieties of which, still retain much of the habit, and manners of this species.

###Canis latrans ** *Note

Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull fulvous, or cinnamon; hair at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertebral line; ears erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plumbeous at base, inside lined with gray hair; eyelids edged with black, superior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined with black-brown before, and edged with black brown behind; iris yellow; pupil black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; rostrum cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; lips white, edged with black, three series of black seta; head between the ears intermixed with gray, and dull cinnamon, hairs dusky plumbeous at the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; legs cinnamon on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black abbreviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; tail bushy, fusiform, straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and tip black; the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the os calcis, when the leg is extended; beneath white, immaculate, tail cinnamon towards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four toed, anterior five toed.

Total length, (excepting the hair at tip of tail) 3 feet 9 1 -2 inches. Trunk of the tail: 1’1-2” Hind foot os calcis to tip of claw: 7. 1-5” Four foot, elbow to tip of claw: 1’3-4” Ears from top of head: 4” Rostrum from anterior cantnus of the eyes: 3’ 3-4” Taken in a trap, baited with the body of a wild cat. The line on the anterior side of the anterior feet, near the wrist, is wanting in a second specimen. This species varies very much in size, another specimen measured In total length, excepting the hair at tip of tail, 3 feet 2 1-2 inches. Tail: 11.3-4” Ear from top of head to tip 3’ 5-8” The snout was narrower than in the preceding specimens, but in colour similar.

Another specimen was destitute of the cinnamon colour, excepting on the snout, where it was but slightly apparent; the general colour was, therefore, gray with an intermixture of black, in remote spots and lines, varying in position and figure with the direction of the hair.