204 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



those industrious diggers from spreading far 

 beyond the limits fixed for them, and seriously 

 damaging walks and lawns, so they were finally 

 caught by placing sand in boxes over their 

 burrows, and transferred to the village whose 

 walls of solid masonry go down to bed rock. 



Photograph by P. C- Kangicser 



PRAIRIE DOG 



These rodents are among the most famihar animals of the Western 

 piains. This photograph was taken in Kansas 



It has been asserted that these interesting little 

 fellows are able to locate their towns away from 

 streams because they burrow down until they 

 strike water, but Dr. Merriam points out the 

 fact that in some regions they live where the 

 nearest veins of artesian-well water are looo feet 

 below the surface. As a matter of fact they can 

 live without drinking. 



The Prairie Dog flourishes over a wide extent 

 of western country, from Texas, New Mexico 

 and Arizona northward to the Canadian bound- 

 ary. It is also at home on the western slope of 

 the Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado and 

 is most abundant in Montana, \\'yoming and 

 western Kansas. One of the largest Prairie 

 Dog towns yet reported begins in Trego County, 

 Kansas, and extends along the divide north of 

 the Smoky Hill River, practically without a 

 break, to Colorado, a total distance of about loo 

 miles. This town varies in width from half a 

 mile to five miles, and on the top of the divide 

 the nearest water is believed to be 350 feet below 

 the surface. 



It is not true, says Dr. Hornaday, that the 

 Prairie Dog lives in peace and harmony in the 

 same burrow with the rattlesnake and burrow- 

 ing owl. The snakes would make short work 

 of the young Dogs, and the latter would quickly 

 kill the owl ! ^^'hen a quarrelsome rattler in- 

 vades the home, the Prairie Dog speedily seeks 

 quarters elsewhere. The burrowing owl is in the 

 habit of taking refuge in abandoned burrows, 

 and nesting in them, to save the labor of digging 

 a burrow for itself. In the Philadelphia Zoo- 

 logical Garden Mr. A. E. Brown once tried the 

 experiment of associating burrowing owls and 

 Prairie Dogs. The owls were immediately 

 killed and torn to pieces. 



In the " Yearbook of the Department of 

 Agriculture" for 1901, Dr. C. Hart Merriam 

 publishes a valuable paper on " The Prairie Dog 

 of the Great Plains." which contains the follow- 

 ing illustrated description : 



" The holes go down for some distance at a 

 very steep angle and then turn at nearly a 



PRAIRIE DOG BURROW 



This diagram made from actual measurements of an excavated 

 burrow, by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and published in the Year- 

 book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, for 1901, is an 

 excellent" ground plan " of this sociable rodent's home. It is 

 remarkable for the great depth and length of the tunnels 



right angle and continue horizontally, rising 

 somewhat toward the end. The nests are inside 

 the chambers connecting with the horizontal part 

 of the burrow, and usually, if not always, at a 

 somewhat higher level. Recently, at Ahna, 



