THE "HAPPY FAMILY" MISUNDERSTOOD. 121 



supposed to lie down together, and such is still the 

 general belief. It was known that the bird and the 

 reptile lived in these villages with the dog, and 

 science set them down as honored guests, instead of 

 robbers and murderers, as they really are." 



On our trip we frequently killed snakes in these 

 v iges which were distended with clogs recently 

 swallowed. The owls feed on the younger members 

 of the household, and the old dogs, except when lin- 

 gering for love of their young, are not long in aban- 

 doning a habitation when snakes and owls take 

 possession of it. The latter having two votes, and 

 the owner but one (female suffrage not being ac- 

 knowledged among the brutes), it is a " happy fam- 

 ily," on democratic principles of the strictest sort. 



We have also repeatedly noticed the dogs busily 

 engaged in filling up a hole quite to the mouth with 

 dirt, and have been led to believe that in this manner 

 they occasionally revenge themselves upon their ene- 

 mies, perhaps when the latter are gorged with ten- 

 der puppies, by burying them alive. An old scout 

 once told us that this filling up process occurred 

 whenever one of their community was dead in his 

 house, but as the statement was only conjectural, we 

 prefer the other theory. 



While we were this day steaming through one vil- 

 lage an incident occurred showing that these animals 

 have yet another active enemy. Startled by the 

 cars, the dogs were scampering in all directions, 

 when a powerful chicken-hawk shot down among 

 them with such wonderful rapidity of flight that his 

 shadow, which fell like that from a flying fragment 



