96 HUNTER'S AND TRAPPER'S GUIDE. 



prairie dog towns by the Western people. 

 Some of these " towns " cover as much as 

 three acres of ground, their inhabitants sub- 

 sisting principally on grass and nuts. They 

 are very daring and stand over their holes 

 and bark at a stranger who approaches their 

 town. If you shoot one while it is standing 

 over its hole you will never get its body, as 

 the hole is perpendicular for four or five feet, 

 and the animal, when in its struggles it falls 

 into it, gets entirely out of your reach. 



In order to catch the prairie dog set five 

 or six dozen of the A traps (see page 112) 

 in the dog town, and conceal them well from 

 the sight of the dogs, having made them fast 

 to stakes. In a few hours you will have 

 more dogs than you will know what to do 

 with. No bait is used in trapping them. 



In skinning the prairie dog, the legs should 

 be split, otherwise the skin should be re- 

 moved and stretched in the same manner as 

 that of the beaver. See page 64. 



