A TALL TALE FROM TEXAS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 50, 7 February 1949, Page 4

A TALL TALE FROM TEXAS

Dr Olaus J. Murie, the American mammalogist, who will soon be down in Fiordland studying the habits of the wapiti and the red deer, is also an ornithologist of international reputation. Before leaving Wellington to attend the Science Congress at Auckland he commented as follows concerning the possibility of finding a moa in the far south. “I have been much interested in the accounts of a live moa said to have been found in the South Island. This is astonishing news. But I suppose we should not be' too sceptical of the possibilities of rolling back time. “I am reminded of the exploits of a wonderful hound published by Mr J. Frank Dobie, of Texas. This dog had a remarkable nose and was an unerring trailer. “But one animal nearly had him stumped! It was a coyote, a prairie wolf,' an unusually elusive creature. Many times this hound was on his trail', but the coyote was too wise to be caught. The dog was not to be beaten, however. He took the back track, and. being a master trailer, kept on the track, on and on, unravelling all the past actions and travels of the coyote—back to the place where the coyote was much younger., As a matter of fact, the dog was so persistent on the back track that he caught the coyote in its youth, when it had not yet acquired sufficient wisdom to escape!