SCIURIDA—CYNOMYS LUDOVICIANUS. 895 
travellers across the Plains, from the time of Pike down to the present day. 
Among the more noteworthy notices are those of Kendall,* Gregg,t Stans- 
bury, t and Marcy.§ Many of these popular accounts are more or less mixed 
with error, owing to the natural tendency, especially among unscientific 
writers, to exaggerate whatever borders on the marvellous. Errors, how- 
ever, have crept into the accounts of even scientific observers, the very names 
of ‘‘Prairie Dog”, “Petit Chien”, ete., being grossly misleading. These 
terms, together with those of ‘“ Dog-towns”, “ Prairie Dog villages”, ete., as 
applied to the colonies of these animals, can doubtless never be eradicated 
from vernacular parlance. As long since noted by Say, the “absurd and 
inappropriate name of Prairie-dog” was given to this animal ‘from a fancied 
resemblance of its warning cry to the hurried barking of a small dog”. Its 
“bark”, however, is strictly that of a Squirrel, bearing really little resem- 
blance to that of any species of Canis. The absurd theory, so widely cur- 
rent, that it harmoniously shares its burrow with the rattlesnake and owl,|| 
* Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, vol. i, p. 188 (1844). A very sensible, amusing, and 
graphic account. 
t Commerce of the Prairies, vol. ii, p. 228 (1845). 
t Salt Lake Exped. p. 37 (1852). 
§ Red River Exped. pp. 46-48. A very good account of its habits. 
|| Pike, apparently the first to make reference to this matter, says:—“ Strange as it may appear, 
I have seen the ‘ Wishtonwish’, the rattle-snake, the horn frog, of which the prairie abounds,...... 
and a land tortoise all take refuge in the same hole. I do not pretend to assert, that it was their com- 
mon place of resort, but I have witnessed the above facts more than in one instance.”—(Journal of a 
Voyage to the Arkansaw, ete. 1810, p. 156, foot-note.) Lewis and Clarke, in their account of the “Petit 
Chien”, also state:—‘*..... we discovered, however, two frogs in the hole, and near it we killed a 
dark rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small prairie dog: we were also informed, though we never 
witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard,and a snake, live habitually with these animals.”—( Travels, 1st 
Am. ed. vol. i, p. 68, 1815.) 
Among the many references to this subject. see further the articles cited in the preceding foot- 
notes; also my own article on this species in Proc. Essex Institute (vol. vi, pp. 49-52), and the fol- 
lowing: Maj. J. W. Merrill, in Forest and Stream (newspaper), issue of July 13, 1876; “ Plume del Rosa”, 
in the same (issue of August 31, 1876); and Lieut. C. A. H. McCauley, in Bull. U. 8. Geol. and Geog. Surv. 
vol. iii, 1877, pp. 680-682. It may be well, however, to add that the Prairie Owls (Speotyto cunicularia var. 
hypogea) are merely occupants of deserted burrows, which offer them a convenient home. While their 
food consists largely of insects (“grasshoppers”) and crawfishes, some have supposed that they also prey 
upon the young dogs, but I have met with no proof that such is the case. On the other hand, the Rattle- 
snakes (Crotalophorus confluentus) bring terror to these little Marmots whenever they appear, upon which 
they largely subsist. They usually, however, make their home in one particular burrow, from which 
they may have driven the rightful owner, but doubtless enter others in search of food. The holes ocen- 
pied by the Marmots, the Owls, and the Rattlesnakes are, respectively, readily distingnishable by evident 
external signs. (See further, Bull. Essex Inst. vol. vi, pp. 49-51.) 
The “Prairie Dog” is readily susceptible of domestication, and makes an agreeable and amusing, 
though sometimes a rather mischievous, pet. None of the animals in the Zodlogical Gardens of Phila- 
delphia probably afford greater pleasure or are of greater interest to yisitors than the considerable colony 
of these animals there successfully domesticated. (On the “ Prairie Dog” as a pet, see the article by 
“Plume del Rosa” in the Forest and Stream (newspaper) of August 31, 1876.) 
