The coyote started at one end of the town and ran at lightning speed in a straight line until he cut off one from its burrow. When the prairie dog saw that it could not get to its hole, it stopped and began to kick until the coyote caught it and killed it in very much the same way that a dog kills a rat. Besides rabbits and prairie dogs, the food of the coyote is known to include the following mammals: Rice rats (_Oryzomys_), kangaroo rats (_Dipodomys_ and _Perodipus_), wood rats (_Neotoma_), ground squirrels (_Ammospermophilus_, _Callospermophilus_, and _Spermophilus_), woodchucks (_Marmota_), voles (_Microtus_), pocket gophers (_Thomomys_), chipmunks (_Eutamias_), and pocket mice (_Perognathus_). All of these are more or less harmful, and the coyote performs an important service in preying upon them. The service is not an occasional or a spasmodic one, but lasts throughout the year and throughout the life of the coyote. When the number of animals taking part in the work is considered, the enormous importance of its bearing in maintaining the 'balance of nature' becomes apparent. The coyote is useful also as a scavenger. In the prairie country, especially in winter, it comes into towns at night searching for garbage thrown into the alleys. Here it finds remnants of meat from the table, offal from game, and similar prizes. When hungry it will reject no animal food, not even carrion. The slaughterhouses near the towns are favorite feeding places, and the animals are often shot there by moonlight. On the ranges they soon consume dead horses and cattle. Leaving the bones clean. INJURIOUS HABITS. Coyotes have been known to capture some of the wild animals that assist man in his warfare' against insects and rodent pests. Among them are the weasels. In August, 1903, a member of the Biological Survey met a coyote carrying a weasel in the Pecos River Mountains of New Mexico at an altitude of 11,600 feet. The coyote, frightened, dropped its prey and ran off. The various kinds of skunks also are probably captured and eaten. GAME DESTROYED BY COYOTES. Coyotes destroy considerable game. Birds that roost and nest on the ground are frequent victims. Quail, grouse, and wild ducks are caught on the nest, and both birds and eggs are eaten. Wild ducks and geese, when wounded and unable to fly, may be found along the banks of streams and ponds, and the coyotes regularly patrol the shores in search of them. In Oklahoma I found fresh coyote tracks each morning on the grassy borders of a large artificial pond. Ducks resorted there in considerable flocks, and I several times found that they had been eaten by coyotes, as evidenced by tracks of the animals and feathers of the birds.