SOIURIDiE— CYNOMY8 LUDOVICIANUS. 



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travellors across <Iie Plains, fioiri llu; tiiiio of Pilv(; down U) the present diiy. 

 Among the more notewortliy notices are those of KtMidal!,* Grcfijj.f Staiis- 

 l)ury,t ftiid Marcy.§ Many of tliese |)(i|»ular aec<tunts are more or less mixed 

 with error, owing to the natural tendency, (;s|)ccially among unscientific 

 writers, to exaggerate wluitever borders on the marvellous. Errors, how- 

 ever, have crept into the accounts of even fcientific ol)s»!rvers, the very names 

 of "Prairie Dog'', "Petit Chien", etc., being grossly misleading. Tliese 

 terms, together with those of "Dog-towns", " Prairie Dog villages", etc., as 

 applied to the colonies of these animals, can doubtless never be eradicated 

 from vernacular parlance. As long since noted by Say, the "absurd and 

 inappropriate name of Prairie-dog" was given to this animal "from a fancied 

 resemblance of its warning cry to the hurried barking of a small dog". Its 

 " bark", however, is strictly that of a S(piirrel, liearing re;dly litth; resem- 

 blance to that of any species of Cunis. The absurd theory, so widely cur- 

 rent, that it harmoniously shares its iiurrow with the rattlesnake and owl,|| 



* Narrative of the Tuxan Santa V& Expedition, vol. i, p. 188 (1844). A very Benaible, amusln);, aud 

 graphic account. 



t Commerce of the Prairiea, vol. ii, p. 238 (1645). 



t Salt Lake Exped. p. 37 (1853). 

 L . $ Red River Exped, pp. 40-48. A very good liccouat of its habits, 



II Pike, apparently the firiit to make reference to thiR matter, aayg:— " Strange as it may appear, 



I have seen the ' Wishtonwlsh', the rattle-snake, the horn frug, of nhich the prairie abounds, 



and a land tortoise all take refuge in the same hole. I do not pretend to assert, that it was their com- 

 mon place of resort, but I have witnessed the abo\e facts more than in one instance." — (Journal of a 

 Voyage to the Arkanaaw, etc. 1810, p. 156, foot-note.) Lewis and Clarke, in their account of the "Petit 



Chiun", also state; — " we discovered, however, two frogs in the hole, and near it we killed tt 



dark rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small prairie dog: we were also informed, though we never 

 witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard, and a snake, live habitually with these animals." — (Traveh, lat 

 Am. ed. vol. i, p. 08, 1815.) 



Among the many referouccs to this subject, see further the articles cited in the preceding foot- 

 notes; also my own article on this species in Proc. Essex Institute (vol vi, pp. 49-53), and the fol- 

 lowing : Maj. J. W. Merrill, in Forent and Stream (newspaper), issue of July 13, 1870 ; " FInuie del Rosa", 

 in the same (issue of August 31, 1870); and Lieut. C. A. H. McCauley, in Bull. U. 8. Oeul. and (jeng. Surv. 

 vol. iii, 1877, pp. C80-683. It may bo well, however, to add that the I'raiiic Owls (Speotyto cunieuluria var. 

 hypogcea) are merely occupants of deserted burrows, which oU'er them a convenient home. While their 

 food consists largely of insects ("grasshoppers") and crawfishes, some have supposed that tliey also prey 

 upon the young dogs, but I have met with no proof thot such is the cac o. On the other hand, the Rattle- . 

 snakes (Crotalophorui confluentue) bring terror to these little Marmots whenever they appear, upon which 

 they largely subsist. They usually, however, make their home in one particular burrow, from wliicli 

 they may have driven the rightful owner, but donbtlesa enter others in search of food. The holee occu- 

 pied by the Marmots, the Owls, and the Rattlesnakes are, respectively, readily distinguishable by evident 

 external signs. (See further, Bull. Essex Inst. vol. vi, pp. 49-51.) 



The "Frairio Dog" is readily susceptible of domestication, and makes an agreeable and amusing, 

 thougli sometimes u rather mischievous, pet. None of the animals ii, the Zoological (Jardens of Phila- 

 delphia probably iifforl greater pleasure or are of greater interest to visitors than the considerable colony 

 of these unimuls there successfully domesticated. (On the " Prairie Don " as a pet, s-ic the article by 

 "Plume del Rosa" in the Forest and Stream (newspaper) of August 31, IHTli.) 



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