Show MANS ANIMAL FOES in the forthcoming year book to be ba published by the united states department part ment of agriculture will offer a novel contribution to natural history the topic will be animals supposed to bo be foes of mankind and it will tell about the mammals and birds n native a to this country which are supposed to be hostile to human beings lind their industries it carnot cannot be said that in ia the united states bounties have brought about tho extermination of a single species of 0 animal in RD any state the rarity of 0 wolves cast of the mississippi river Is rather due to the settlement of 0 the country than to tile the number killed lor for rewards on the great plains ghere civilization has not encroached upon natures domain to any great extent tile the wolves havo have not decreased perc perceptibly notwithstanding wl high premiums paid for scalps almost undoubtedly coyotes which are a small bided of w wolves alv c 9 tave have increased in california during the last three years since the bounty on them was withdrawn so that there are sow liow as many of them in that state as ever california montana and texas offered 5 a piece for coyote scalps tor for some time the outlay aggregating hundreds ot of thou thousands sanC Is of dollars but the results were unimportant iowa and Alinne minnesota sota are the only western states which now pay more than 3 per wolf scalp and lu in iowa the rate for pung young wolves is 2 meanwhile in some parts of thel the country wolves and coyotes are very destructive in now new mexico they lill kill from to worth ot of sheep annually and in N nebraska the damage done to sheep Is reckoned at a year one difficulty Il in the wolf problem lies in the fact that it is impossible to secure the cooperation ot of all tile the states this lack of agreement t on the subject of bounties in general opens a wide door to fraud scalps taken in localities where rewards recarda arp are low are shipped to places where premiums are high and thus it often happens that a county is compelled to pay for animals that dill did not belong to it at the present time the bounty on wolves and coyotes varies from to 5 the latter price being paid in the black hill regions of south dakota in north dakota it is 2 it Is 3 in montana and WYOM wyoming Dg and in iowa it is 3 5 except tor for young animals thus rewards may be claimed profitably in iowa for coyotes killed hilled in north dakota the wolf bounty in nevada was 50 cents when california was offering ott ering 3 5 for scalps consequently thou thousands sandr of scalps were shipped from nevada to california and large numbers of thorn were actually imported from mexico so that california found herself getting poorer at a distressing rate and tile the bounty law was repealed repeal ed owing to ignorance of natural history on th the e part or of local authorities heads of 10 domestic bestic fowls partridges pheasants cuckoos butcher birds etc were accepted and paid for as those of hawks and owls under the scalp act in pennsylvania tile the skins skills of do dogs S and other domestic animals are arc frequently turned in tor for those of wolves and coyotes in the case of small animals the heads are sometimes accepted in one county and the tails in another county so that the premiums are collected twice one county in north dakota waging war on ground squirrels first required the head then tho tha tall and a year or two later all four feet one Inte interesting az effect of the bounty system Is to encourage the breeding of the animals outlawed it is said that in india many natives are regularly engaged in the business of propagating snakes for the sake of the premiums offered by tile the government for venomous serpents there Is no doubt that the same thing has been done in this country with various animals for which bounties were granted F for or example the eggs of hawks and owls have been taken from the nests and hatched under hens in iowa a few years ago it was said to he be more profitable to rear coyotes for the bounty than to raise sheep and kentucky and new 1 mexico have recognized the possibility of breeding wolves by requiring affidavits showing that the animals had not been raised for the sake of rewards |