80 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



ing to the reports of the natives, the latter evince 

 such a strong affection towards their strange 

 messmate that they will even desert their nest 

 should it be removed, but as there is a strong 

 suspicion that the amphisbaena feeds upon the 

 bodies of its host, the friendship appears to be a 

 somewhat one-sided affair. At a first glance, the 

 amphisbsena appears to be nothing less than a 

 curiously -marked worm, yet, in reality, it is a 

 limbless lizard which has the remarkable power 

 of progressing along the ground in both a forward 

 and backward direction, a circumstance which 

 is responsible for the belief held by the natives 

 that it possesses two heads. 



An interesting association between four-footed 

 creatures and birds is that indulged in by the North 

 American prairie dogs or prairie marmots, and the 

 burrowing owls, for where the former make their 

 burrows, there also the owls will be found dwelling 

 in the deserted homes of their mammalian com- 

 panions or, occasionally, in those that they have 

 excavated by their own efforts. At one time it 

 was believed that the marmots and owls lived 

 together in harmony and shared the same burrows, 

 and it has even been stated that rattlesnakes, 

 frogs, and tortoises were included in the happy 

 family. At the present day, however, we know 

 that such is not the case, and that it is only the 

 uninhabited burrows which the owls appropriate 

 to their use ; while as regards the rattlesnakes, 

 although it is true that they do at times force their 

 presence within a marmot's sanctum, yet it is not 



