246 RODENTIA. 



*' The Prairie Dog of the American Prairies is un- 

 doubtedly a variety of the Marmot ; and not probably 

 unlike those which inhabit the vast Steppes of Asia. 

 It bears no resemblance to any variety of dogs, except 

 in the sound of its voice, when excited by the approach 

 of danger, which is something like that of a very small 

 dog, and still much more resembling the barking of a 

 gre}' squirrel. 



" The size of these curious little animals is not very far 

 from that of a very large rat, and they are not unlike 

 in their appearance. As I have said, their burrows are 

 uniformly built in a lonely desert ; and away both from 

 the proximity of timber and water. Each individual, 

 or each family, dig their hole in the prairie to the depth 

 of 8 or 10 feet, throwing up the dirt from each 

 excavation in a little pile, in the form of a cone, which 

 forms the only elevation for them to ascend ; where 

 they sit to liark and chatter when an enemy is approach- 

 ing their village. These villages are sometimes of 

 several miles in extent ; containing (I would almost say) 

 myriads of these excavations and little dirt hillocks, and 

 to the ears of their visitors the din of their barkings 

 is too confused and too peculiar to be described. 



" The holes leading down to their burrows are four or 

 five inches in diameter, and run down nearlj' perpendicu- 

 lar ; where they undoubtedly communicate into something 

 like a subterraneous city (as I have formerly learned 

 from fruitless endeavours to dig them out), undermined 

 and vaulted ; by which means they can travel for a 

 great distance under the ground, without danger from 

 pursuit. 



" Their food is simply the grass in the immediate 

 vicinity of their burrows, which is cut close to the 

 ground by their flat shovel teeth ; and, as they some- 



