496 THE PRAIRIE DOG. 



The Hackee moves into its winter quarters early in November, and, excepting occasional 

 reappearances whenever the sun happens to shine with peculiar warmth, is not seen again 

 until the beginning of spring. The young are produced in May, and there is generally a 

 second brood in August. Their number is about four or five. The male Hackee is rather 

 a pugnacious animal, and it is said that during their' combats their tails are apt to snap 

 asunder from the violence of their movements. It is undoubtedly true that those members 

 are wonderfully brittle, but whether they undergo such spontaneous amputation is not so 

 certain. 



Pretty as it is, and graceful as are its movements, it hardly repays the trouble of keeping 

 it in a domesticated state ; for its temper is very uncertain, and it is generally sullen towards 

 its keeper. Although the food of the Hackee is mostly of a vegetable character, it is occa- 

 sionally diversified with other substances ; for the Chipping Squirrel, like his relative, is 

 occasionally carnivorous in his appetite. One of these animals was detected in the very act 

 of robbing a bird's nest and devouring the callow young. 



BETWEEN the squirrels and the marmots there are one or two intermediate links, one of 

 which has already been noticed in Tamias, and another is found in the genus Spermophilus ; 

 also in Cynomys, to which the PRAIRIE DOG belongs. 



The Prairie Dog, as it is popularly called, is found in very great plenty along the course 

 of the Missouri and its tributaries, and also near the River Platte. It congregates together in 

 vast numbers in certain spots where the soil is favorable to its subterranean habits of life and 

 the vegetation is sufficiently luxuriant to afford it nourishment. The color of this animal is a 

 reddish -brown upon the back, mixed with gray and black in a rather vague manner. The 

 abdomen and throat are grayish-white, and the short tail is clothed for the first half of its 

 length with hair of the same tint as that of the body, and for the remaining half is covered 

 with deep, blackish-brown hair, forming a kind of brush. The cheek-pouches are rather 

 email, and the incisor teeth are large and protruding from the mouth. The length of the 

 animal rather exceeds sixteen inches, the tail being a little more than three inches long. 

 The cheek-pouches are about three-quarters of an inch in depth, and are half that measure- 

 ment in diameter. 



The Prairie Dog is a burrowing animal, and as it is very gregarious in its habits, the spot 

 on which it congregates is literally honeycombed with its tunnels. There is, however, a kind 

 of order observed in the "Dog- towns," as these warrfflis are popularly called, for the animals 

 always leave certain roads or streets in which no burrow is made. The affairs of the commu- 

 nity seem to be regulated by a single leader, called the Big Dog, who sits before the entrance 

 of his burrow, and issues his orders from thence to the community. In front of every burrow 

 a small heap of earth is raised, which is made from the excavated soil, and which is generally 

 employed as a seat for the occupant of the burrow. 



As long as no danger is apprehended, the little animals are all in lively motion, sitting 

 upon their mounds, or hurrying from one tunnel to another as eagerly as if they Avere trans- 

 acting the most important business. Suddenly a sharp yelp is heard, and the peaceful scent 

 is in a moment transformed into a whirl of indistinguishable confusion. Quick barks resound 

 on every side, the air is filled with a dust-cloud, in the midst of which is indistinctly seen an 

 intermingled mass of flourishing legs and whisking tails, and in a moment the populous 

 "town" is deserted. Not a "dog" is visible, and the whole spot is apparently untenanted. 

 But in a few minutes a pair of dark eyes are seen gleaming at the entrance of some burrow, 

 a set of glistening teeth next shine through the dusky recess, and in a few minutes first one 

 and then another Prairie Dog issues from his retreat, until the whole community is ^igain in 

 lively action. 



The title of Prairie Dog has been given to this animal on account of the sharp yelping 

 sound which it is in the habit of uttering, and which has some resemblance to the barking of 

 a very small and very peevish lapdog. Every time that it yelps it gives its tail a sharp jerk. 

 This peculiar sound is evidently employed as a cry of alarm ; for as soon as it is uttered all 



