COYOTE, the Indian name for a North American member of the dog family, also known as the prairie-wolf, and scientifically as Canis latrans. Ranging from Canada in the north to Guatemala in the south, and chiefly frequenting the open plains on both sides of the chain of the Rocky Mountains, the coyote, under all its various local phases, is a smaller animal than the true wolf, and may apparently be regarded as the New World representative of the jackals, or perhaps, like the Indian wolf (C. pallipes), as a type intermediate between wolves and jackals. In addition to its inferior size, the coyote is also shorter in the leg than the wolf, and carries a more luxuriant coat of hair. The average length is about 40 in., and the general tone of colour tawny mingled with black and white above and whitish below, the tail having a black tip and likewise a dark gland-patch near the root of the upper surface. There is, however, considerable local variation both in the matter of size and of colour from the typical coyote of Iowa, which measures about 50 in. in total length and is of a full rich tint. The coyote of the deserts of eastern California, Nevada and Utah is, for instance, a smaller and paler-coloured animal, whose length is usually about 42 in. On this and other local variations a number of nominal species have been founded; but it is preferable to regard them in the light of geographical phases or races, such as the above-mentioned C. latrans estor of Nevada and Utah, C. l. mearnsi of Arizona and Sonora, and C. l. frustor of Oklahoma and the Arkansas River district.
It is to distinguish them from the grey, or timber, wolves that coyotes have received the name of “prairie-wolves”; the two titles indicating the nature of the respective habitats of the two species. Coyotes are creatures of slinking and stealthy habits, living in burrows in the plains, and hunting in packs at night, when they utter yapping cries and blood-curdling yells as they gallop. Hares (“jack-rabbits”), chipmunks or ground-squirrels, and mice form a large portion of their food; but coyotes also kill the fawns of deer and prongbuck, as well as sage-hens and other kinds of game-birds. “In the flat lands,” write Messrs Witmer Stone and W. E. Cram, in their American Animals (1902), “they dig burrows for themselves or else take possession of those already made by badgers and prairie-dogs. Here in the spring the half-dozen or more coyote pups are brought forth; and it is said that at this season the old ones systematically drive any large game they may be chasing as near to their burrow, where the young coyotes are waiting to be fed, as possible before killing it, in order to save the labour of dragging it any great distance. When out after jack-rabbits two coyotes usually work together. When a jack-rabbit starts up before them, one of the coyotes bounds away in pursuit while the other squats on his haunches and waits his turn, knowing full well that the hare prefers to run in a circle, and will soon come round again, when the second wolf takes up the chase and the other rests in his turn. . . . When hunting antelope (prongbuck) and deer the coyotes spread out their pack into a wide circle, endeavouring to surround their game and keep it running inside their ring until exhausted. Sage-hens, grouse and small birds the coyote hunts successfully alone, quartering over the ground like a trained pointer until he succeeds in locating his bird, when he drops flat in the grass and creeps forward like a cat until close enough for the final spring.”
When hard put to it for food, coyotes will, it is reported, eat hips, juniper-berries and other wild fruits. (R. L.*)
COYPEL, the name of a French family of painters. Noel
Coypel (1628–1707), also called, from the fact that he was much
influenced by Poussin, Coypel le Poussin, was the son of an
unsuccessful artist. Having been employed by Charles Errard to
paint some of the pictures required for the Louvre, and having
afterwards gained considerable fame by other pictures produced
at the command of the king, in 1672 he was appointed director
of the French Academy at Rome. After four years he returned to
France; and not long after he became director of the Academy
of Painting. The Martyrdom of St James in Notre Dame is
perhaps his finest work.
His son, Antoine Coypel (1661–1772), was still more celebrated than his father. Antoine studied under his father, with whom he spent four years at Rome. At the age of eighteen he was admitted into the Academy of Painting, of which he became professor and rector in 1707, and director in 1714. In 1716 he was appointed king’s painter, and he was ennobled in the following year. Antoine Coypel received a careful literary education, the effects of which appear in his works; but the graceful imagination displayed by his pictures is marred by the fact that he was not superior to the artificial taste of his age. He was a clever etcher, and engraved several of his own works. His Discours prononcés dans les conférences de l’ Académie royale de Peinture, &c.; appeared in 1741.
Antoine’s half-brother, Noel Nicholas Coypel (1692–1734), was also an exceedingly popular artist; and his son, Charles Antoine (1694–1752), was painter to the king and director of the Academy of Painting. The latter published interesting academical lectures in Le Mercure and wrote several plays which were acted at court, but were never published.
COYPU, the native name of a large South American aquatic
rodent mammal, known very generally among European residents
in the country as nutria (the Spanish word for otter) and scientifically
as Myocastor (or Myopotamus) coypu. Its large size,
aquatic habits, partially webbed hind-toes, and the smooth,
broad, orange-coloured incisors, are sufficient to distinguish
this rodent from the other members of the family Capromyidae.
Coypu are abundant in the fresh waters of South America, even
small ponds being often tenanted by one or more pairs. Should
the water dry up, the coypu seek fresh homes. Although
subsisting to a considerable extent on aquatic plants, these
rodents frequently come ashore to feed, especially in the evening.
Several young are produced at a birth, which are carried on their
mother’s back when swimming. The fur is of some commercial
value, although rather stiff and harsh; its colour being reddish-brown.
(See Rodentia.)
COYSEVOX, CHARLES ANTOINE (1640–1720), French sculptor, was born at Lyons on the 29th of September 1640, and belonged to a family which had emigrated from Spain. The name should be pronounced Coëzevo. He was only seventeen when he produced a statue of the Madonna of considerable merit; and having studied under Lerambert and trained himself by taking copies in marble from the Greek masterpieces (among others from the Venus de Medici and the Castor and Pollux), he was engaged by the bishop of Strassburg, Cardinal Fürstenberg,
to adorn with statuary his château at Saverne (Zabern). In 1666 he married Marguerite Quillerier, Lerambert’s niece, who died a year after the marriage. In 1671, after four years spent on Saverne, which was subsequently destroyed by fire in 1780, he returned to Paris. In 1676 his bust of the painter Le Brun obtained admission for him to the Académie Royale. A year later he married Claude Bourdict.
In consequence of the influence exercised by Le Brun between the years 1677 and 1685, he was employed by Louis XIV. in producing much of the decoration and a large number of statues for Versailles; and he afterwards worked, between 1701 and 1709, with no less facility and success, for the palace at Marly, subsequently destroyed in the Revolution.
Among his works are the “Mercury and Fame,” first at Marly and afterwards in the gardens of the Tuileries; “Neptune and Amphitrite,” in the gardens at Marly; “Justice and Force,” at Versailles; and statues, in which the likenesses are said to have been remarkably successful, of most of the celebrated men of his age, including Louis XIV. and Louis XV. at Versailles, Colbert (at Saint-Eustache), Mazarin (in the church des Quatre-Nations), Condé the Great (in the Louvre), Maria Theresa of Austria, Turenne, Vauban, Cardinals de Bouillon and de Polignac, Fénelon, Racine, Bossuet (in the Louvre), the comte d’Harcourt, Cardinal Fürstenberg and Charles Le Brun (in the Louvre). Coysevox died in Paris on the 10th of October 1720.
Besides the works given above he carved about a dozen memorials, including those to Colbert (at Saint-Eustache), to Cardinal Mazarin (in the Louvre), and to the painter Le Brun (in the church of Saint Nicholas-du-Chardon).
