298 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



the gophers. Of all the prairie creatures, they are the stupidest, 

 the most beset with curiosity to know what that jay's shriek may 

 mean. Sunning themselves in the last rays of daylight, the gophers 

 perch on their hind legs to wait developments of what the jay 

 announced. But the badger's fur and the gopher mounds are 

 almost the same color. He has pounced on some playful 

 youngsters before the rest see him. Then there is a wild scuttling 

 down to the depths of the burrows. That, too, is vain ; for the 

 badger begins ripping up the clay bank like a grizzly, down — 

 down — in pursuit, two, three, five feet, even twelve. 



Then is seen one of the most curious freaks in all the animal 

 life of the prairie. The underground galleries of the gophers con- 

 nect and lead up to different exits. As the furious badger comes 

 closer and closer on the cowering gophers, the little cowards lose 

 heart, dart up the galleries to open doors, and try to escape through 

 the grass of the prairie. But no sooner is the badger hard at work 

 than a gray form seems to rise out of the earth, a coyote who had 

 been slinking to the rear all the while ; and as the terrified gophers 

 scurry here, scurry there, coyote's white teeth snap ! — snap ! He 

 is here — there — everywhere — pouncing — jumping — having the 

 fun of his life, gobbling gophers as cats catch mice. Down in the 

 bottom of the burrow, the badger may get half a dozen poor cooped 

 huddling prisoners; but the coyote up on the prairie has devoured 

 a whole colony. 



Do these two, badger and coyote, consciously hunt together ? 

 Some old trappers vow they do — others just as vehemently that 

 they don't. The fact remains that wherever the badger goes 

 gopher-hunting on an unsettled prairie, there the coyote skulks, 

 reaping reward of all the badger's work. The coincidence is no 

 stranger than the well-known fact that sword-fish and thrasher 

 — two different fish — always league together to attack the whale. 



One thing only can save the gopher colony, and that is the gun 

 barrel across yon earth mound where a trapper lies in wait for the 

 coming of the badger. 



