162 FAUNA AMERICANA. 



the tip, the hair excepting near the body is not 

 plumbeous at base. 



Habit. This interesting little animal is very 

 sprightly, and has received the inappropriate name 

 of Prairie dog, from a fancied resemblance of its 

 warning cry to the hurried barking of a small dog: 

 this sound may be imitated with the human voice, 

 by the pronunciation of the syllable, cheh-cheh- 

 cheh, in a sibilated manner, and in rapid succes- 

 sion, by propelling the breath between the tip of 

 the tongue and the roof of the mouth. 



As particular districts, of limited extent, are in 

 general occupied by the burrows of these animals, 

 such assemblages of dwellings are denominated 

 Prairie dog villages, by hunters and others. These 

 villages differ widely in the extent of surface 

 which they occupy ; some are confined to an area 

 of a few acres ; others are bounded by a circum- 

 ference of many miles. The entrance to the bur- 

 row is at the summit of the little mound of earth 

 cast up by the animal during the progress of ex- 

 cavation. These mounds are sometimes incon- 

 spicuous, but generally somewhat elevated above 

 the common surface, though rarely to the height 

 of eighteen inches. Their form is of a truncated 

 cone, on a base of two or three feet, perforated by 

 a comparatively large hole at the summit, or in 

 the side. The whole surface, but more particu- 

 larly the summit, is trodden down and compacted; 

 tlie hole descends vertically one or two feet, 



