v THE BADGER AND HIS KIN 143 



animals, from the badger down to the mouse and 

 lizard, who cannot migrate, it becomes a case, 

 literally, of "Root, hog, or die!" Shelter must 

 be had, and as the only shelter possible is beneath 

 the ground, every creature that cannot get away 

 in the fall digs a hole in which to pass the winter. 

 When human pioneers decide to brave a winter on 

 the plains they do substantially the same thing, and 

 for the same reason; for an Oklahoma "dugout" 

 is scarcely more than a burrow, furnished with 

 skins and cloth instead of grass and leaves ; and 

 both boomers and gophers find these homes beneath 

 the sod highly serviceable against the heats and 

 dust-storms of summer, as well as against the blasts 

 and snows of winter. 



In plainer language, then, no resident mammals, 

 with a few rare and partial exceptions, can make 

 their homes upon the open plains of our West, or 

 on the pampas of South America, on the Karoo of 

 southern or the Sahara of northern Africa, or 

 the steppes of Russia or Central Asia, unless they 

 have acquired the knowledge and power of bur- 

 rowing. It is probable that in all stages of the 

 globe's development, since land animals began to 

 roam upon it, at least, there have been wide areas 

 devoid of forest, and these were no doubt inhab- 

 ited from the beginning, inasmuch as some of the 

 earliest mammalian forms of which we have any 

 traces seem by their structure to have been adapted 

 to this manner of life. It is, moreover, almost 



