UNWELCOME GUESTS. 119 



an unknown or dangerous animal to approach them 

 without exciting their attention, when the shrill 

 whistle of alarm is sounded and re-echoed from one 

 guardian to another, till the whole community is 

 on the qui vive ! 



Even in a state of rest their nervous little tails 

 keep twitching, a movement possibly adopted to 

 keep the watchmen wakeful when at their post. 



This species of marmot is so susceptible to atmo- 

 spheric influences that I have found them superior 

 to a barometer as indicators of a change of weather. 

 Before a storm they are unusually demonstrative, 

 constantly going from earth to earth, rushing up to 

 one another, apparently exchanging their thoughts, 

 and then dashing off again. Sometimes they may be 

 seen at the entrance of their burrows, taking a sur- 

 vey of the clouds and horizon, and then disappearing 

 with the same unaccountable impetuosity. Their 

 residences are never free from the presence of two 

 guests, who, I am inclined to believe, are far from 

 welcome, and who render their life less pleasant than 

 it might otherwise be ; the first are rattlesnakes, the 

 second the small burrowing owl. These gentry at- 

 tach themselves to the prairie dog, because they find 

 a shelter and nest ready to hand without the trouble 

 of employing their brains on planning, or their hands 

 on construction. The snakes, however, I fear, repay 

 the benefits they receive by the basest ingratitude, 

 and many a poor little prairie dog is sacrificed to their 

 insatiable appetite. 



