120 BUFFALO LAND. 



without twitching its tail, than a single-thread Jack 

 could bow its head without lifting its legs. Those 

 nearest would look pertly at us for a moment, and 

 then dive head foremost into their holes. The tail 

 would hardly disappear before the head would take 

 its place and, peering out, scrutinize us with twink- 

 ling eyes, and chatter away in concert with its neigh- 

 bors, with an effect which reminded me of a forest 

 of monkeys suddenly disturbed. 



Sachem declared that they must all be females, for 

 no sooner had one been frightened into the house 

 than it poked its head out again to see what was the 

 matter. " That sex would risk life at any time to 

 know what was up." 



The professor, with a more practical turn, told us 

 some of the quaint little animal's habits. "Why 

 it is called a dog," said he, " I do not know. Neither 

 in bark, form, or life, is there any resemblance. It 

 is carnivorous, herbivorous, and abstemious from 

 water, requiring no other fluids than those obtained 

 by eating roots. Its villages are often far removed 

 from water, and when tamed it never seems to desire 

 the latter, though it may acquire a taste for milk. 

 It partakes of meats and vegetables with apparently 

 equal relish. It is easily captured by pouring two or 

 three buckets of water down the hole, when it 

 emerges looking somewhat like a half-drowned rat. 

 The prairie dog is the head of the original 'happy 

 family.' It was formerly affirmed, even in works of 

 natural history, that a miniature evidence of the 

 millennium existed in the home of this little animal. 

 There the rattlesnake, the owl, and the dog were 



