Mammals 41 



animal found all over the prairies of the eastern part of the state. 

 The name ludovicianus, given by Ord in 1815, recalls the former 

 wide extension of Louisiana. The white-tailed prairie-dog, Cyno- 

 mys leucurus of Merriam, is found in Wyoming and Utah, and 

 also the northwest portion of Colorado. It is smaller than the 

 plains species, and the apical part of the tail is white instead of 

 black. The Gunnison prairie-dog (Cynomys gunnisoni of Baird) 

 belongs to the mountains of central Colorado, and extends into 

 northern New Mexico. I have seen it in great numbers at Floris- 

 sant, at an altitude of about 8,000 feet. The terminal half of 

 the tail has a gray center, bordered and tipped with white. The 

 Zuni prairie-dog (Cynomys gunnisoni zuniensis of Hollister) has 

 its center of development in New Mexico and Arizona, but has 

 been found at Bedrock, Cortez, and Coventry, Colorado. It 

 differs from true gunnisoni by being larger, and the color is more 

 pinkish cinnamon and ochraceous, less buffy and blackish. Hollis- 

 ter proposed a new subgenus (Leucocrossuromys) for C. leucurus 

 and gunnisoni, but I have studied the skulls of all these animals, 

 and do not find any satisfactory basis for such a division.* Pos- 

 sibly something significant may be found in the soft anatomy. 



Hollister says* "Prairie-dogs are unquestionably respon- 

 sible for great annual damage to crops and pasturage. In certain 

 areas the destruction amounts to virtually the entire forage. Crops 

 of grain and cultivated hay are often entirely ruined unless drastic 



preventive measures are taken Among the principal 



natural enemies of the prairie-dog are the badger, coyote, black- 

 footed ferret, eagle, rough-legged hawk, and raven. . . . Many 

 absurd stories of the joint occupation of dens by prairie-dogs, 

 rattlesnakes, and burrowing owls have been written, but careful 

 observers have found that whatever the relation between these 

 denizens of the plain may be, — and the creatures are often found 

 together in the villages, — it is anything but advantageous to the 

 prairie-dog, and large numbers of its young are destroyed by the 

 unwelcome visitors." 



The remaining Sciurinae have comparatively long or very 

 long tails, very bushy in the true squirrels (Sciurus). The small 

 squirrel so common in the mountains is called Sciurus fremonti, 



*See Bull. Amer. Mu«. Nat. Hist., XXXIII, p. 367. 



