which occupied any spare holes. These rather ridicuKnis looking; 

 birds with gawky legs seem to live on terms of mutual respect 

 with prairie dogs and to gain their living from the multitudes of 

 mice of various kinds that also inhabit the land, though under 

 somewhat servile conditions, picking up the scraps left by the 

 prairie dogs, such as seeds, and even feeding on their droppings. 

 However, the owls were never averse to taking a baby prairie 

 dog if one wandered their way. (The young of these owls are. 

 incidentally, among the silliest-looking creatures imaginable, at 

 least to our eyes, for they are almost completely spherical and 

 tailless, set up upon two parallel slender legs, wear a perpetual 

 scowl, are constantly winking, and seem to have practically no 

 sense of balance whatever.) Next to the owls, which seem to 

 have been merely an ineradicable bore, the most annoying 

 neighbors of the prairie dogs were undoubtedly the rattlesnakes, 

 which appear to have existed in great numbers on the prairies. 

 Being active at night — although with a detectable odor — rather 

 fast-moving, and able to penetrate the burrows, these reptiles 

 appear to have taken a considerable toll of young and even 

 adult prairie dogs. The old tale about their living peacefully in 

 the burrows with the prairie dogs is apparently untrue. 



Three other animals were, and still are. much more trouble 

 to the little animals. These are the Badger, the Prairie Falcon, 

 and a large weasel — now said to be almost extinct, but which 

 exists in considerable quantities where there are still prairie dogs 

 in any numbers— known as the Black-footed Ferret. This last is 

 really the North American form of the Polecat of the Old World. 

 known in its domesticated form (when it is usually an albino) 

 as the "ferret." It is a beautifully colored large weasel with 

 an ochreous pelt and a long overcoat tipped with dark brown, 

 black lower limbs and feet, and a black tail and mask. It seems 

 to have been evolved as a natural corollary to the prairie dogs, 

 living by and on them almost exclusively. It is also shaped to 

 enter their burrows and search them out. but even this animal 

 with its keen senses and agility has to work hard to get its food. 

 and it never did more than just control the vast armies of the 

 rodents. The prairie dogs relied on sheer numbers and their 

 tunneling activities for protection, so that even this ferocious 

 little predator could take only a certain quota of the population, 

 for the burrows in any one ward were all interconnected and 

 the rodents themselves were almost innumerable. Like all other 

 decent citizens of nature's society, the Polecat took only what he 

 needed, and the prairie dogs made up this slight loss by their 

 incredible fecundity. 



The Badger was. and still is, an entirely different factor in the 

 prairieland economy. He is omnivorous, eating almost anything 

 vegetable or animal that is digestible. He is also the champion 

 digger for his size, and his method of gaining a living has 

 always been to go at the problem bald-headed — and a badger 

 can make an astonishingly large hole even in hard ground in an 

 astonishingly short time. When he wants prairie dogs he goes 

 after them directly, just digging into the ground, creating turmoil 

 this way and that, trapping whole families in the collapsed earth, 

 and devouring them as he uncovers them. 



The American Badger is a most remarkable beast. It is low- 

 slung, naturally obese, considerably flattened, and immensely 

 powerful. There are documented records of these animals raising 

 incredible weights by forcing their wedge-shaped bodies under 

 them. They are still rather common animals, and it seems they 

 have extended their range since the introduction of farming on 

 this continent on a large scale. They are now in the Parkland 

 Belt and even in the woodlands; they are all over the Northern 

 Scrub Belt and are also found in the deserts. The reason for this 

 may be that they are almost physically indestructible. 



"Tumbleweeds" include various plants that break off at 

 ground level and are rolled about by the wind, scattering 

 their seeds. Among such are Tumbling Pigweed. Winged 

 Pigweed, Bugseed. Tumbling Mustard, and Witchgrass. 



Perhaps the most efficient controller of the prairie dogs — and 

 it seems that these happy little creatures have long been the butt 

 for all manner of predation — is the Prairie Falcon (known to 

 ornithologists as Falco mexicanus), which used to live in great 

 numbers all over this region. It is very like the Peregrine Falcon 

 but larger and paler in color. These birds are common to tho 

 whole Southwest and are not ever seen east of the Mississippi 

 You may identify them in flight by dark patches where the 

 wings join the body. They are not nearly so neat in appearance 

 as most other falcons, notably their nearest relative, the Pere- 

 grine. They have from time immemorial specialized in hunting 

 prairie dogs. The only strange thing is that the prairie dogs seem 

 never to have learned that these sharp-eyed, swift, and efficient 

 predators are aloft and consider prairie dog their standard diet 

 Prairie dogs are extremely alert horizontally and never miss 

 even the slightest irregularity anywhere around them, but they 

 simply fail to look up. They stare fixedly at your feet and vibrate 

 their tails in terror as you approach, but they never think of 

 looking up to see your gloved hand descending upon them. Thus 

 it is that the prairie falcons come roaring down with wings 

 almost closed like nose cones released from space rockets, extend 



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