Editing Coyote (section)

===History===
[[File:Toltec coyote.jpg|thumb|A [[Toltec]] pictograph of a coyote]]
At the time of the European colonization of the Americas, coyotes were largely confined to open plains and arid regions of the western half of the continent.{{sfn|Nowak|1979|p=14}} In early post-Columbian historical records, determining whether the writer is describing coyotes or wolves is often difficult. One record from 1750 in [[Kaskaskia, Illinois]], written by a local priest, noted that the "wolves" encountered there were smaller and less daring than European wolves. Another account from the early 1800s in [[Edwards County, Illinois]] mentioned wolves howling at night, though these were likely coyotes.<ref name="hoffmeister">{{cite book |last=Hoffmeister |first=Donald F. |year=2002 |title=Mammals of Illinois |publisher=University of Illinois Press |pages=33–34 |isbn=978-0-252-07083-9 |oclc=50649299 |url={{Google book|plainurl=yes|id=IH4iv6MrrW4C|page=33}} }}</ref> This species was encountered several times during the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] (1804–1806), though it was already well known to European traders on the upper [[Missouri River|Missouri]]. [[Meriwether Lewis]], writing on 5&nbsp;May 1805, in northeastern [[Montana]], described the coyote in these terms:
{{Blockquote|<!-- Leave spelling errors as-is; this is a direct quote. -->The small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually associate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take [[deer]] or goat they are rarely ever found alone but hunt in bands; they frequently watch and seize their prey near their burrows; in these burrows, they raise their young and to them they also resort when pursued; when a person approaches them they frequently bark, their note being precisely that of the small dog. They are of an intermediate size between that of the [[fox]] and dog, very active fleet and delicately formed; the ears large erect and pointed the head long and pointed more like that of the fox; tale long ... the hair and fur also resembles the fox, tho' is much coarser and inferior. They are of a pale reddish-brown colour. The eye of a deep sea green colour small and piercing. Their [claws] are rather longer than those of the ordinary wolf or that common to the Atlantic states, none of which are to be found in this quarter, nor I believe above the river Plat.<ref name="mussulman2004"/>}}

The coyote was first scientifically described by [[naturalist]] [[Thomas Say]] in September&nbsp;1819, on the site of Lewis and Clark's Council Bluffs, {{convert|15|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} up the Missouri River from the mouth of the Platte during a [[Stephen Harriman Long#1817-23 expeditions up the Missouri and Platte Rivers|government-sponsored expedition]] with Major [[Stephen Harriman Long|Stephen Long]]. He had the first edition of the Lewis and Clark journals in hand, which contained Biddle's edited version of Lewis's observations dated 5&nbsp;May 1805. His account was published in 1823. [[Thomas Say|Say]] was the first person to document the difference between a "''prairie wolf''" (coyote) and on the next page of his journal a wolf which he named ''Canis nubilus'' ([[Great Plains wolf]]).<ref name="say1823">{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Edwin |last2=Long |first2=Stephen H. |last3=Say |first3=Thomas |last4=Adams |first4=John |year=1823 |title=Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819 and '20 |url=https://archive.org/stream/accountofexpedit01jame#page/168/mode/2up/search/canis+latrans |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Pees, Orre, & Brown |location=London |volume=1 |pages=168–174}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2179 |title=Thomas Say: ''Canis latrans'' |last1=Mussulman |first1=Joseph |date=November 2004 |publisher=Discovering Lewis & Clark |access-date=15 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721214331/http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2179 |archive-date=July 21, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Say described the coyote as:
{{Blockquote|<!-- Leave spelling errors as-is [sic]. This is a direct quote. -->''Canis latrans''. Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull fulvous, or cinnamon; ''hair'' at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertebral line; ''ears'' erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plumbeous at base, inside lined with gray hair; ''eyelids'' edged with black, superior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined with black-brown before, and edged with black brown behind; ''iris'' yellow; ''pupil'' black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; ''[[Rostrum (anatomy)|rostrum]]'' cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; ''lips'' white, edged with black, three series of black seta; ''head'' between the ears intermixed with gray, and dull cinnamon, hairs dusky plumbeous at base; ''sides'' paler than the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; ''legs'' cinnamon on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black abbreviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; ''tail'' bushy, fusiform, straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and tip black; the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the [[Calcaneus|os calcis]], when the leg is extended; ''beneath'' white, immaculate, tail cinnamon towards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four toed, anterior five toed.<ref name="say1823"/>}}