ON THE PLAINS 257 



lived in or about woods or thickets of some nature, and 

 that they have been chiefly lovers of darkness — night 

 hunters — the lUiifalo and Jack Rabbit being the great 

 exceptions. Now Ave have come to some fourfoots 

 Avho, like those two, also prefer the open plains. 

 Naming them in order of size they are the Antelope or 

 Pronghorn, the Coyote, the Badger, and the Prairie 

 Dog, who even to-day carry on the drama of the plains 

 in spite of the onward march of two-footed settlers. 



" Three of these four animals live and feed in the 

 open light of day, the Badger alone being a night 

 prowler. Two, the Badger and the Prairie Dog, sleep 

 the winter sleep, having liomes deep under the ground. 

 Two, the Pronghorn and Coyote, are always watching 

 and awake, always alert, living wherever their food is 

 to be found. This drama is not a comedy, it is a tragic 

 grand chain, liands-all-round. 



"The Prongliorn is a cud-chcAver, therefore a vege- 

 table eater and no cannibal ; but the Coyote eats the 

 Pronghorn, Prairie Dog, and Badger (when he can catch 

 him), as well as our old friend, the Jack Rabbit. The 

 Badger also eats tlie Prairie Dog, as well as Rats, Mice, 

 Gophers, and other nuisance animals, yet the Prairie 

 Dog is the only one of the four who increases beyond 

 the possibility of counting, and stretches his villages 

 from the liome of the Peccary in Texas to the land of 

 the Varying Ilare." 



" Do they build houses ? " asked Dodo. " These in 

 the picture seem to be sitting by little holes on top of 

 ant-hills, that look exactly like the tips of the volcanoes 

 on your raised map in the wonder room." 



" They do not build," said the Doctor ; " they dig 



