Coyotes

Coyotes hunted by local dogs appear as quarry in the account of William C. Harden’s wolfhounds, but the narrative gives them no direct perspective or individual characteristics. Instead, their significance comes through the human actions organized around their pursuit: Ben Givens’s search for the man who took his shotgun, and a later conversation that describes Harden’s hounds as pursuing a broader range of moving targets.

Hunting in the Moonlight

As Ben approaches the Wolfhound Orchard, he passes the busy October apple harvest and stops near the orchard’s bins and equipment. He has not seen the thief who took his shotgun, but suspects one of the workers might be that man. In his thoughts, he identifies Harden as the person who runs his wolfhounds after Coyotes hunted by local dogs in the moonlight. The pursuit thus enters the scene as part of Ben’s effort to locate Harden and recover the gun, not as an encounter with the animals themselves.

The Hounds’ Expanding Target

In a later conversation, Bea Harden describes her husband as sending his hounds after Coyotes hunted by local dogs. Ben answers that the hounds are sent after anything that moves, then compares them with his own Brittany dogs. He says Harden’s hounds killed one of his dogs and maimed the other. That harm is to Ben’s dogs, not to the coyotes; the distinction matters because the exchange broadens the account from a stated pursuit of quarry to a pattern of indiscriminate aggression. The animals remain offstage, known through the danger posed by the hounds and the conflict that danger has created between their owners.