when these natural resources of the country fail, sheep and young calves furnish abundant food.

In nearly all the Western States the efforts of ranchmen to destroy the coyote have been supplemented by laws authorizing the payment of bounties from public funds. Some of these laws have been in operation for a score of years or even more and, except locally, no diminution in the general numbers of the animals has resulted. In some parts of Mexico where the natives have for many years practiced systematic poisoning, the coyote is becoming rare, but in most sections of its range it is either increasing or no substantial decrease has been observed.

COYOTES IN KANSAS.

The State of Kansas, where settlements are comparatively old and where man's warfare against the coyote has been long continued, affords an excellent illustration of the animal's ability to maintain its numbers under seemingly adverse circumstances. Most of the counties of the State have for many years paid bounties for killing coyotes, and conditions have been reached where there is little fluctuation in the total amount paid from year to year. The returns of the animals killed for the fiscal twelve months from July 1, 1903, to June 30, 1904, show that nearly 20,000 scalps were presented for bounty in the State.

The following is a table, by counties, of the number of coyotes on which bounties were paid during the year above specified. Of the 11 missing counties, 10—Cherokee. Comanche. Finney. Grant, Haskell, Kearney, Morton, Seward, Stevens, and Wyandotte—paid no bounties, and 1, Doniphan, made no report. The bounty in all cases is $1 for each animal killed.

Number of coyotes on which bounties were paid in Kansas
from July 1, 1903, to June 30. 1904.

[C] six months.

The experience in Kansas is not exceptional. It may be duplicated in a dozen other Western States and in some of the British provinces. It is probable