SCIURID^}— CYNOMYS LUDOVICIANUS. 895 



travellers across the Plains, from the time of Pike down to the present day. 

 Among the more noteworthy notices are those of Kendall,* Gregg,f Stans- 

 hury, J and Marcy.§ Many of these popular accounts are more or less mixed 

 with error, owing to the natural tendency, especially among unscientific 

 writers, to exaggerate whatever borders on the marvellous. Errors, how- 

 ever, have crept into the accounts of even scientific observers, the very names 

 of "Prairie Dog'', "Petit Chien", etc., being grossly misleading. These 

 terms, together with those of "Dog-towns", "Prairie Dog villages", etc., as 

 applied to the colonies of these animals, can doubtless never be eradicated 

 from vernacular parlance. As long since noted by Say, the "absurd and 

 inappropriate name of Prairie-dog'' was given to this animal "from a fancied 

 resemblance of its warning cry to the hurried barking of a small dog". Its 

 " bark", however, is strictly that of a Squirrel, bearing really little resem- 

 blance to that of any species of Canis. The absurd theory, so widely cur- 

 rent, that it harmoniously shares its burrow with the rattlesnake and dwl,|| 



* Narrative of tbe Texan Santa Y6 Expedition, vol. i, p. 188 (1844). A very sensible, amusing, ami 

 graphic account. 



t Commerce of tbe Prairies, vol. ii, p. 228 (1845). 



1 Salt Lake Exped. p. 37 (1852). 



§ Red River Exped. pp. 46-48. A very good account of its habits. 



|| Pike, apparently the first to make reference to this matter, says: — " Strange as it may appear, 



I have seen the ' Wishtonwish'j the rattle-snake, the horn frog, of which tbe prairie abounds, 



aud a land tortoise all take refuge in the same hole. I do not pretend to assert, that it was their com- 

 mon place of resort, but I have witnessed the above facts more than in one instance." — (Journal of a 

 Voyage to the Arkansaw, etc. 1810, p. 156, foot-note.) Lewis and Clarke, in their account of the "Petit 



Chien", also state:—" we discovered, however, two frogs in the hole, and near it we killed a 



dark rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small prairie dog : we were also informed, though we never 

 witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard, and a snake, live habitually with these animals." — (Travels, 1st 

 Am. ed. vol. i, p. 68,1815.) 



Among the many references to this subject, see further the articles cited in the preceding foot- 

 notes; also my own article on this species in Proc. Essex Institute (vol vi, pp. 49-52), and the fol- 

 lowing: Maj. J. W. Merrill, in Forest and Stream (newspaper), issue of July 13, 1876; "Plume del Rosa", 

 in the same (issue of August 31, 1876) ; and Lieut. C. A. H. McCauley , in Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. 

 vol. iii. 1877, pp. 680-682. It may be well, however, to add that the Praiiie Owls (Speotyto cunicularia var. 

 hi/pogcea) are merely occupants of deserted burrows, which offer them a convenient home. While their 

 food consists largely of insects ("grasshoppers") and crawfishes, some have supposed that they also prey 

 upon the youug dogs, but I have met with no proof that such is the case. On the other band, the Rattle- 

 snakes (Crotalophorus confluentus) bring terror to these little Marmots whenever they appear, upon which 

 tbey largely subsist. They usually, however, make their home in one particular burrow, from which 

 they may have driven the rightful owner, but doubtless enter others in search of food. The holes occu- 

 pied by the Marmots, the Owls, aud tbe Rattlesnakes are, respectively, readily distinguishable by evident 

 external signs. (See further, Bull. Essex Inst. vol. vi, pp. 49-51.) 



The "Prairie Dog" is readily susceptible of domestication, aud makes an agreeable and amusing, 

 though sometimes a rather mischievous, pet. None of the animals in the Zoological Gardens of Phila- 

 delphia probably after I greater pleasure or are of greater interest to visitors than the considerable colony 

 of these animals there successfully domesticated. (On the " Prairie Dog " as a pet, see the article by 

 "Plume del Rosa" in the Forest and Stream (newspaper) of August 31, 1876.) 



