CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 363 



spects its natural history is alike curious and interesting. It lives in burrows on the prairies of 

 the Missouri and Platte rivers, and also farther south in Texas, New Mexico, and on the borders 

 of Sonora and California. Often several hundreds of families are collected together in villages, 

 called "Dog-towns" by the trappers and hunters. Before each hole there is a small mound, on 

 which the marmots may be often seen sitting on their hind-legs, or stretched up and looking 

 about. They are noisy creatures, uttering a sharp "chip, chip, chip," called barking. At each cry 

 they jerk the tail, as if it cost them an effort to speak so loud. The holes go down at an angle 

 of forty degrees for some distance, ami then diverge sideways and upward. At the end of their 

 burrows there is a bed of dry grass. They are very watchful, and if a person approaches they 

 dive into their holes. If one will wait for fifteen minutes they will peep out, sometimes uttering 

 a whistling note. They appear to feed more by night than by day. In the colder regions in- 

 habited by this animal, it is believed that it hibernates, but not in the warmer. The flesh is said 

 to be sweet, tender, and juicy. 



One of the most remarkable circumstances in respect to the prairie-dog is, that their burrows 

 f.re the resort of burrowing owls and rattlesnakes, these creatures sometimes apparently living in 

 the holes with the marmots; and yet there is good evidence that they sometimes devour them. 

 Lewis and Clark dug out a rattlesnake from a burrow which had a marmot in his stomach. There 

 is reason to believe, also, that the owls feed on the young marmots, and sometimes even on the 

 full-grown ones. It is supposed, furthermore, that they enter the burrows and eat the remains of 

 such marmots as die there, and thus they serve as scavengers of the village. Nevertheless, the 

 owls and marmots seem to live on the best terms with each other, and the rattlesnakes are at 

 least tolerated, probably as hangers-on whom it is difficult to get rid of. 



The following sketches, from Kendall's narrative of the Texan Expedition to Santa Fe, are 

 written with equal truth and humor, and give an excellent account of one of the large marmot 

 villages: ""We had proceeded but a short distance, after reaching this beautiful prairie, before we 

 came upon the outskirts of the commonwealth. A few scattering dogs were seen scampering in, 

 their short, sharp yells giving a general alarm to the whole community. The first brief cry of 

 danger from the outskirts was soon taken up in the center of the city, and now nothing was to 

 be heard or seen in any direction but a barking, dashing, and scampering of the mercurial and 

 excitable denizens of the place, each to his burrow. 



" Far as the eye could reach the city extended, and all over it the scene was the same. We 

 rode leisurely along until we had reached the more thickly settled portions of the place. Here 

 we halted, and after taking the bridles from our horses, to allow them to graze, we prepared for 

 a regular attack upon the inhabitants. The burrows were not more than ten or fifteen yards 

 apart, with well trodden paths leading in different directions, and I even fancied I could discover 

 something like regularity in the laving out of the streets. 



" We sat down upon a bank, under the shade of a musquit, and leisurely surveyed the scene be- 

 fore us. Our approach had driven every one to his home in our immediate vicinity, but at the 

 distance of some hundred yards, the small mound of earth in front of each burrow was occupied 

 by a dog, sitting erect on his hinder legs, and coolly looking about for the cause of the recent 

 ■onimotion. Every now and then, some citizen more adventurous than his neighbor would leave 

 his lodgings, on a flving visit to a friend, apparently exchange a few words, and then scamper 

 back as fast as his legs would carry him. 



"By and by, as we kept perfectlv still, some of our near neighbors were seen cautiously poking 

 their heads from out their holes, looking craftily, and at the same time inquisitively, about them. 

 Gradually a citizen would emerge from the entrance of his domicile, come out upon his observa- 

 tory, peek his head cunningly, and then commence yelping, somewhat after the manner of a 

 young puppy, a quick jerk of the tail accompanying each yelp. It is this short bark alone that 

 { has given them the name of dogs, as they bear no more resemblance to that animal, either in ap- 

 pearance, action, or manner of living, than they do to the hyena. 



"We were armed, one with a double-barreled shot-gun, and another with one of Colt's repeat- 



ing-rifles, of small bore, while I had my short, heavy rifle, throwing a large ball, and acknowledged 



; by all to be the best weapon in the command. It would drive a ball completely through a buf- 



