THE PRAIRIE DOGS. 35 
cuted by the racy and popular pen of G, 
Wilkins Kendall, that any attempt by me 
would be idle ; and I feel that the most agree- 
able service I can do my readers is to borrow 
a paragraph from his alluring “ Narrative,” 
describing a scene presented by one of these 
prairie commonwealths. 
“In their habits they are clannish, social, 
and extremely convivial, never living alone 
like other animals, but, on the contrary, al- 
ways found in villages or large settlements. 
hey are a wild, frolicsome, madcap set of 
fellows when undisturbed, uneasy and ever 
on the move, and appear to take especial de- 
light in chattering away the time, and visiting 
from hole to hole to gosip and talk over each 
other’s affairs—at least so their actions would 
indicwte: ec% vs On several occasions I crept 
close to their villages, without being observed, 
to watch their movements. Directly in the 
centre of one of them I particularly noticed a 
very large dog, sitting in front of the door or 
entrance to his burrow, and by his own actions 
and those of his neighbors it really seemed as 
though he was the president, mayor, or chief— 
at all events, he was the ‘big dog’ of the place. 
For at least an hour I secretly watched the ope- 
rations in this community. During that time 
the large dog I have mentioned received at 
least a dozen visits from his fellow-dogs, which 
would stop and chat with him a few moments, 
and then run off to their domicils. All this 
while he never left his post fora —— and 
I thought I could discover a gravity in his 
