Wolves are cunning beasts and will often try to lull their prey into unsuspicion by playing round and cutting capers.  I once saw a young deer and a wolf-cub together near the hut of the settler who had captured both.  The wolf was just old enough to begin to feel vicious and bloodthirsty, and to show symptoms of attacking the deer.  On the occasion in question he got loose and ran towards it, but it turned, and began to hit him with its forefeet, seemingly in sport; whereat he rolled over on his back before it, and acted like a puppy at play.  Soon it turned and walked off; immediately the wolf, with bristling hair, crawled after, and with a pounce seized it by the haunch, and would doubtless have murdered the bleating, struggling creature, had not the bystanders interfered.

Where there are no domestic animals, wolves feed on almost anything from a mouse to an elk.  They are redoubted enemies of foxes.  They are easily able to overtake them in fair chase, and kill numbers.  If the fox can get into the underbrush, however, he can dodge around much faster than the wolf, and so escape pursuit.  Sometimes one wolf will try to put a fox out of a cover while another waits outside to snap him up.  Moreover, the wolf kills even closer kinsfolk than the fox.  When pressed by hunger it will undoubtedly sometimes seize a coyote, tear it in pieces and devour it, although during most of the year the two animals live in perfect harmony.  I once myself, while out in the deep snow, came across the remains of a coyote that had been killed in this manner.  Wolves are also very fond of the flesh of dogs, and if they get a chance promptly kill and eat any dog they can master—­and there are but few that they cannot.  Nevertheless, I have been told of one instance in which a wolf struck up an extraordinary friendship with a strayed dog, and the two lived and hunted together for many months, being frequently seen by the settlers of the locality.  This occurred near Thompson’s Falls, Montana.

Usually wolves are found singly, in pairs, or in family parties, each having a large beat over which it regularly hunts, and also at times shifting its ground and travelling immense distances in order to take up a temporary abode in some new locality—­for they are great wanderers.  It is only under stress of severe weather that they band together in packs.  They prefer to creep on their prey and seize it by a sudden pounce, but, unlike the cougar, they also run it down in fair chase.  Their slouching, tireless gallop enables them often to overtake deer, antelope, or other quarry; though under favorable circumstances, especially if near a lake, the latter frequently escape.  Whether wolves run cunning I do not know; but I think they must, for coyotes certainly do.  A coyote cannot run down a jack-rabbit; but two or three working together will often catch one.  Once I saw three start a jack, which ran right away from them; but they spread out, and followed.  Pretty soon the