A Trip on the Prairie 227 



wherever they exist are sure to attract attention, all 

 the more so because, unlike most other rodents, they 

 are diurnal and not nocturnal, offering therein a 

 curious case of parallelism to their fellow denizen 

 of the dry plains, the antelope, which is also a crea- 

 ture loving to be up and stirring in the bright day- 

 light, unlike its relatives, the dusk-loving deer. 

 They are very noisy, their shrill yelping resounding 

 on all sides whenever a man rides through a town. 

 None go far from their homes, always keeping close 

 enough to be able to skulk into them at once ; and as 

 soon as a foe appears they take refuge on the hillocks 

 beside their burrows, yelping continuously, and ac- 

 companying each yelp by a spasmodic jerking of the 

 tail and body. When the man comes a little nearer 

 they disappear inside and then thrust their heads out, 

 for they are most inquisitive. Their burrows form 

 one of the chief dangers to riding at full speed over 

 the plains country ; hardly any man can do much rid- 

 ing on the prairie for more than a year or two with- 

 out coming to grief on more than one occasion by 

 his horse putting its foot in a prairie-dog hole. A 

 badger hole is even worse. When a horse gets his 

 foot in such a hole, while going at full speed, he 

 turns a complete somersault, and is lucky if he escape 

 without a broken leg, while I have time and again 

 known the rider to be severely injured. There are 

 other smaller animals whose burrows sometimes 

 cause a horseman to receive a sharp tumble. These 

 are the pocket-gophers queer creatures, shaped like 

 moles and having the same subterranean habits, but 



