MAMMALS. 



601 



picture of inquisitiveness tempered with a due amount of caution. The 

 prairie-dogs are constantly digging. No matter how large their under- 

 ground nests may be, they are constantly trying to make them larger, and 

 so day by day the hillocks grow, while the subterranean passages become 

 interminable. 



These animals are frequently tamed and domesticated, and most amus- 

 ing pets they make. They will make their burrows in the yard; and though 

 so tame as to come regularly for their meals, they always show their native 



Fig. 486. — Prairie-dogs (G'ynomys htdovicianus). 



traits as well in domestication as in their wild condition. They show the 

 same desire for soft linings to their nests, the same timorousness except at 

 meal-time, and they dig as well and as constantly as if on their western 

 prairies. One has, however, to be careful ; for these animals are great 

 gnawers, and nothing except articles of stone or metal are safe from their 

 teeth. We have already alluded (pages 389 and 527) to the alleged com- 

 munism which is stated to exist between prairie-dogs, owls, and rattle- 

 snakes, and need not refute it again. It is, however, a question whether 

 these animals ever drink in their own homes. In confinement they do 



