318 



THE RODENTS OR GNAWING ANIMALS. 



little, yellow-brown Prairie Dog sits on his haunches 

 like a Squirrel; the erect little tail is in constant 

 motion and the fine, shrill, yelping little voices of 

 many thousands unite to form a peculiar droning 

 sound. If the observer comes a few steps nearer, 

 he hears and distinguishes the deeper voices of the 

 older and more experienced leaders; but as soon as 

 the intruder is observed, a sharp note of warning is 

 uttered, and, as if by magic, every moving creature 

 disappears, plunging head first into its burrow. In 

 places, after a short interval of time, an investigating 

 head, in which is set a pair of eager eyes, protrudes 

 from the entrance of a burrow, while a constant bark- 

 ing warns its friends of the dangerous proximity of 

 Man. If the observer lie down and patiently keep 

 quiet and motionless, the sentinel will soon resume 

 its post upon the top of its mound, and communi- 

 cate the disappearance of danger to its companions 

 by incessant yelping. One by one they leave their 

 dark burrows, and the harmless activities of the 

 sociable little creatures are presently resumed. For 

 hours one could look at the ever changing spectacle 

 without tiring, and it is no wonder that the observer 

 begins to wish that he could understand the lan- 

 guage of the animals; could mingle with them and 

 listen to their private conversations." 



It is a remarkable fact, vouched for by various ob- 

 servers, that the burrows of Prairie Dogs are shared 

 by two dangerous foes of smaller Rodents. Not 

 infrequently the Prairie Dogs, Burrowing Owls and 

 Rattlesnakes are seen coming and going through 

 the same entrance. 



Comments upon this alleged friendliness and good-fellowship 

 between Prairie Dogs, Owls and Rattlesnakes appear very 

 frequently in accounts of the Prairie Dog, but the belief in the 

 existence of such relations is founded on one of those half 

 truths which so often lead to erroneous impressions. The Owls 

 and Rattlesnakes are inhabitants of the same regions as the 

 Prairie Dogs and make use of their burrows, but, as Elliott 

 Coues says: "Owls and Snakes are enemies of each other, and 

 both of the Marmots, The birds would devour the young 

 Marmots if they could get at them, and do devour the young 

 Snakes; and the Snakes devour the young Marmots, the Owlets 

 and the eggs of the Owls." 



Prairie Dogs Haacke writes as follows about cap- 

 Obserued in tive Prairie Dogs: " There are prob- 

 Captwity. ably few animals, the lives of which 

 in captivity so readily become assimilated to their 

 habits in the free state, as the Prairie Dogs, the 

 ingenious habitations of which, together with the 

 attractive activity of the animals themselves, fasci- 

 nate many visitors to the zoological garden at Frank- 

 fort. Scarcely had we put new tenants in our Prairie 

 Dog park, which had been improved the previous 

 summer by several new arrangements, when the ani- 

 mals commenced their digging. We put them in 

 the park in the afternoon, and by the following night 

 they were able to sleep in the burrows which they 

 had by that time completed. The Prairie Dog works 

 with great intelligence when enlarging its burrows. 

 It never begins to dig at the lower end of the tun- 

 nel to be excavated, for by so doing it would stop 

 its exit or at least narrow it to a great extent; so it 

 always begins at the upper end. The earth left 

 from former diggings is shoved under the abdomen 

 by the fore-paws, and the hinder paws fling it out- 

 side, and so the animal gradually disappears from 

 view, working alternately with its fore and hind 

 paws. But its building operations do not stop short 

 with the digging of tunnels. An important part 

 of its labor is the erection of a dam around the 

 mouth of the tunnel, protecting the burrow from 

 inundations. For this purpose the earth that has 



been flung out is collected. What has been thrown 

 too far away is flung back near the entrance of the 

 burrow by using the hind legs, and then, as the work 

 has to be exact, the animal carefully pushes the 

 earth with its fore-paws and heaps it around the 

 entrance. Then, to make it permanent, able to re- 

 sist rain, and form an effective dam, it is thoroughly 

 pressed with the nose; and for this work of puddling 

 the mound and the walls of the entrance, the Prairie 

 Dog selects rainy days as best, and on such days 

 the impressions of the animal's nose can be seen all 

 around the entrance. 



" According to the weather the Prairie Dog makes 

 temporary changes in its burrow. When, in Octo- 

 ber, the weather became cold, our Prairie Dogs 

 closed three of the five entrances of their subter- 

 ranean residence. The earth around the mounds 

 was utilized, the dams being partially destroyed for 

 this purpose. I have seen them do just the opposite 

 thing in summer, when the sun would shine warmly 

 after rainy days, and the dwelling had to be dried. 

 Ventilating tunnels, promoting the evaporation of 

 moisture, were then dug. To make the burrow 

 habitable the bed is upholstered with hay and simi- 

 lar substances. When the weather is dry we throw 

 a handful of hay to our Prairie Dogs. Then the 

 animals form bundles of the hay with their forepaws 

 and muzzle, so thick that they can hardly grasp them 

 in their mouths and carry them underground. They 

 utilize paper in a similar way; entire sheets of news- 

 paper are moulded into balls and carried away. 

 When the hay on the bed has become too damp, it 

 is removed and replaced by a fresh supply." 



The Bobac, an The Bobac ( Arctomys bobac) takes 

 European the place of the Prairie Dog in the 

 Species. old World; and. like it, is an inhab- 

 itant of the plains. It has only recently been gener- 

 ically distinguished from the Alpine Marmot. Its 

 body is fifteen inches long, its tail not quite four; 

 the tolerably thick fur is of a pale russet yellow tint. 

 The young have a darker color than the mature 

 animals. 



The Bobac's range extends from southern Poland 

 and Galicia eastward through part of central Asia to 

 the Amoor, and perhaps to Kamchatka, and through 

 the Himalayas to Sikkim. It inhabits plains and 

 rocky, hilly stretches of country, shunning forests 

 as well as sandy localities, which do not admit of 

 the burrowing of its deep habitations. Adams 

 found it in the wide valleys and table-lands of Cash- 

 mere, at elevations of six thousand or even nine 

 thousand feet above sea level. There it lives in 

 fertile valleys in which a luxuriant but stunted 

 vegetation covers the ground during the summer. 

 The Bobac is always gregarious, gathering in rather 

 numerous bands. Its presence impresses a certain 

 peculiar stamp upon the localities it affects. Innu- 

 merable mounds, which one notices in the grassy 

 steppes of central Asia, owe their existence princi- 

 pally to these Marmots, which attract the attention 

 of the traveler by their activity, while their flesh 

 renders them an important article of food to the 

 inhabitants of the steppes and to various predaceous 

 lower animals. 



Home of the High up in the most elevated rocky 



Alpine Marmot regions of the Alps, where there 

 Described. grows neither tree nor shrub, where 

 no Cow, and scarcely a Goat or a Sheep can pene- 

 trate, even on the small, rocky islands in the very 

 midst of the huge glaciers, where the warm rays of 

 the sun do not melt the snow for more than six 



