lauDom Il0te0 on Jlatural Ii0t0ri). 



Vol. III. 



PROVIDENCE, OCTOBER 1, 1886. 



No. lO. 



Entered at the Providence Post-Offiee as Second-Class Matter. 



l|miboiii f otps on Tfalnrai f istori|. 



A Monthly Devoted to the Distribution of Use- 

 ful Knowledge Concerning the Various De- 

 partments OF Zoology, Mineralogy, and 

 Botany. 50 Cents a Year. 

 Address all communications to 



JAMES M. SOUTHWICK, 

 258 AVestminster St., Providence, R. I., U.S. A. 



The Black-Footed Ferret. 



While hunting one day last December, 

 I saw some tracks in tlie snow, that much 

 resembled the foot-mark of the mink, but 

 being a long distance from water, I con- 

 cluded it could not be that animal. I 

 found it was a persistent hunter, as the 

 tracks led to nearly every hole in a large 

 prairie-dog town, but it had not attempted 

 to descend into the hole at any place. The 

 dogs are dormant the greater part of the 

 winter, and their holes get filled on the out- 

 side with snow as was the case then. 

 After following the tracks for a while, I 

 gave it up. The next day I put up several 

 steel traps, and on the following morning I 

 was agreeably surprised to find a fine male 

 black - footed ferret, Putorius (Cynomy- 

 onax) nigripes, in one of them. This spe- 

 cies was named by And. and Bach., the 

 word cynomyonax meaning the king of the 

 prairie dogs, of which I have no doubt it 

 would be if it could but catch them. The 

 ferret is strictly nocturnal, while the prairie 

 dog retires very earl}', and a dog hole is so 

 constructed that a ferret would not venture 

 to descend it, knowing that it could never 

 get out again. I have now the domesticated 

 English ferret, and have tried many times 

 to get them into a dog hole but never could 

 succeed. 



Their holes run in the ground on an easy 

 slope for about two feet, then drop perpen- 

 dicularly for several feet, and no ferret could 

 get out unaided. I have put a ferret into 

 a box with several dogs in it, and it com- 

 menced slaughtering them just as if they 

 had been so many rats. 



I cannot indorse the powers of extermina- 



tion recently attributed by some writers to 

 P. nigripes, regarding their descent into the 

 burrows of the dogs to clean them out of 

 house and home. 



I have tracked several since and have 

 captured three, but never saw one that 

 had attempted to enter the holes. 



There are alwa^'s a great many mice that 

 live in dog holes and they are most likely tlie 

 objects sought for. The last two ferrets I 

 trapped were both killed by the swift fox 

 while in the traps, showing that they also 

 have more than one enemy. The male 

 was about seventeen inches in length from 

 the nose to the rump. The female about 

 three inches shorter. The upper parts 

 were of a darkish brown, under side lighter, 

 feet, tip of tail, and forehead surrounding 

 the eyes black. The teeth were all worn 

 short and blunt, denoting that they were no 

 " tenderfeet" as the Coloradians call all new 

 settlers. 



I have no doubt but the swift fox is its 

 common enemy, as the ferret would have 

 no show to either fight or run against it. It 

 is evident the fox did not kill for food, but 

 followed the natural laws of extermination. 



A great deal has been written about the 

 mutualit}- and brotherly love existing be- 

 tween the prairie dog, burrowing owl, and 

 rattlesnake. Well, those that have seen 

 them plying their dail}' avocations know as 

 well as I do that it is all bosh. The dog is 

 an industrious, clean house-keeper, and 

 would never let oflf apartments to a dirt}', 

 slovenly, noisy owl, coming home at all 

 hours both day and night loaded with all 

 varieties of putrefaction, and as for the 

 rattlesnake, he is like the process server in 

 " Quid Ireland," when he goes in, the tenants 

 soon get out. 



I have read and heard that dogs always 

 go down low enough for water ; now here in 

 the old Rockies, at some places, they would 

 have to go through hundreds of feet of rock 

 to get water. I do not believe they ever 

 drink at all, any more than a jack rabbit 

 does, or man}' other rodents. 



Wm. G. Smith. 



