ON THE PLAINS 259 



be too much of anything. But by and by House 

 People had to meddle, and witliout tliinking much 

 about it killed off some things, and then the others 

 grew too many, because there was no one to eat them ! " 



" That is rather a mixed way of putting it,'' laughed 

 Dr. Koy, '' but we understand wliat you mean, which 

 is something. 



" The Prairie Dog eats not only grass, but grass 

 roots also, and as soon as they have eaten all within a 

 certain distance of their homes, tliey move on, burrow- 

 ing fresh villages, leaving bare, barren ground behind 

 them, only to lay waste fresh grazing ground. 



''J^efore the Ikiffaloes had left and farm cattle 

 roamed over the })lains, and wheat helds made green 

 seas of the prairies, the natural enemies of the Prairie 

 Dogs held them in check. But the farmer was more 

 angry with the Coyote, Fox, and Badger tlian with the 

 seemingly harmless Prairie Dog, and turned liis atten- 

 tion to them, until he found that it was much worse to 

 have his pasture eaten than to lose a few calves and 

 lambs — and now the war wages fiercely in the grazing 

 and wheat lands. 



" You may take a rifle and play ' catch as catcli can, 

 until the gunpowder runs out of the heels of your boots,' 

 like the people in the nursery jingle ; but it is more 

 often ' catcli as catch eant ' when you undertake to 

 rout a Prairie Dog town. 



" I have often sauntered through one of their villages, 

 stick in hand, merely to see. what they would do. They 

 were as usual on the watch, each one close to his door. 

 Very likely a Burrowing Owl, living in some abandoned 

 hole of the dogs, would drop me a quaint l)ol)bing cour- 



