TIIE PRAIRIE DOG. 259 



had kept an anxious watch for the prairie dog, as I was 

 most anxious to see what sort of creature it was, but all 

 in vain. Several men who professed intimacy with the 

 Far West, to whom I had been referred as experienced 

 hunters on the plains previous to my leaving England, 

 had replied to my question in affirmation that " they had 

 been acquainted with the animal," and that " oh he 

 was a sort of little dog ; " but further than that they 

 could not tell me. While in America my curiosity was 

 still increased by a statement which I received and still 

 receive with caution, that there was a small species of 

 owl that lived in the holes with the prairie dogs, and 

 that rattlesnakes did so too. Now, if this tale be true, 

 were the snakes and owls in predatory search for the 

 young of the prairie dog, or is the " town," so called, 

 the resort of a " happy family? " and in case of snakes 

 " in their little nest ^agreeing," has the prairie dog, or 

 " marmot," of which class he certainly is, a power of 

 resistance to snake-poison ? I am trying to obtain a 

 further supply of live prairie dogs, and it will be an 

 experiment for Mr Buckland, to let one of the rattle 

 snakes, I think there is one in the Regent's Park 

 Gardens, if he can obtain permission, be put with the 

 prairie-dog, to see if there be any fellowship betwqen 

 them. Before complete familiarity be allowed, however, 

 between the snake and marmot, the loss of the first must 

 be prepared for as well as the latter, for very great hostility 

 letiveen these two may exist, in spite of American belief 

 that they are friends, and the marmot has certainly the 

 power to kill a snake if lie possesses a similar knowledge to 

 the ichneumon. 



