152 CITELLUS. 
113. adocetus (Ciztellus), Merr., Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 1903, p. 79. 
PLAIN-TAILED SPERMOPHILE. 
Type locality. La Salada, 40 miles south of Uruapan, State of 
Michoacan, Mexico. 
Genl. Char. Near C. annulatus, but smaller; tail without rings; 
pelage harsh; ears short, tail long. Skull has broader jugal, and 
broad frontal; long postorbital processes decurved. 
Color. Upper parts grizzled grayish and black, top of head 
darker; superciliary stripe buffy, sometimes washed with pale ful- 
vous; buffy band under eye; under parts yellowish buff; occasionally 
fulvous on throat and chin; fore legs, hands, and feet dull pale fulvous; 
sides of neck washed with fulvous; tail grizzled black and buffy, 
terminal half bordered with black and edged with buffy fulvous, 
median line of distal half beneath pale fulvous. At certain seasons 
the upper parts of body are dull ochraceous brown. 
Measurements. Total length, 350; tail vertebre, 156; hind foot, 
48. Skull: basal length, 41; palatal length, 24; postpalatal length, 17; 
zygomatic breadth, 26; interorbital breadth, 13; length of tooth row 
on alveolus, 8.25; on crowns, 7.5. 
The ‘‘Prairie-dogs,’’ as their name implies, are dwellers of the 
plains, where they congregate in such large numbers that their 
countless burrows are known as “‘towns.’’ The presence of any one 
approaching one of these is immediately announed by the barking of 
the ‘‘dogs,’’ which, sitting bolt-upright at the mouths of their burrows, 
by shrill staccato cries express their disapproval of the intrusion. 
Not very brave are the “‘dogs,’”’ for when a near approach is threat- 
ened, each one disappears into the nearest hole, and does not come out 
again until satisfied that all danger is past. In form this Marmot is 
rather chunky, with short tail and coarse short hair, the tips of 
which have been worn away by constant rubbing against the soil in 
their mining operations. The dentition is powerful and the fore 
paws are formed for digging. The galleries in their ‘“‘towns’’ ramify 
in all directions and cover a vast extent of ground, and it would be 
a useless effort to try and dig out one of these animals. They are 
very animated, incessantly in motion, and when barking the tail is 
jerked upward with a spasmodic action as if the creature were moved 
by springs. Owls and rattlesnakes are fellow-boarders with the 
‘““dogs’’ in these towns, by no means dwelling in amity, as supposed 
by some, for the snakes and owls destroy the various young, those of 
the ‘“‘dogs’’ being the chief sufferers, and doubtless they would be 
