118 POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 
visitors, during daylight hours, they will be kept for ex- 
hibition; otherwise not. At present, some examples of these 
species can be seen in the Reptile House. 
In Winter.—In the temperate zone, when ‘‘winter comes 
to rule the varied year,’’ all the burrowing animals must 
retire to their burrows, live upon their buried stores of 
winter food, and hibernate until spring. The tropical 
species do not know how to hibernate, and therefore they 
must be taken indoors, or they perish. 
In order that our native species of rodents may be seen 
all winter, and that the tropical species may be kept alive, 
nearly all the animals that in summer live in the Burrow- 
ing Mammal Quarters are removed in autumn to the well- 
warmed Small-Mammal House. It also happens that in 
summer a few of the small carnivores, and all armadilloes, 
are kept in these Quarters. 
In addition to the rodents which it is practicable to ex- 
hibit in these enclosures, the summer season will find some 
of them occupied by certain especially interesting species 
which need the soil of Mother Earth as well as sunlight 
and air. Here will be found the Armadilloes, the Nasuas, 
the Raccoon Dogs, the Swift Foxes and a few others, which 
in winter belong in the Small-Mammal House. 
‘ 
THE PRAIRIE-DOG VILLAGE, No. 41. 
The Western Prairie-‘‘Dog,’’ or Prairie Marmot, (Cyno- 
mys ludovicianus).—Occupying a conspicuous hill-top near 
the Small-Deer House, and overlooking the Wild-Fowl 
Pond, is a circular enclosure, 80 feet in diameter, sur- 
rounded by an iron fence with an overhang, with walls 
going down to bedrock. This contains about fifty fat and 
jolly little Prairie Marmots, one-half of which are the gift 
of a Montana ranchman, Mr. Howard Eaton. The soil of 
the enclosure has never been disturbed, and there is no 
danger that the little creatures ever will be smothered in 
their burrows, as frequently happens in earth that has once 
been dug up and filled in again. 
Owing to its optimistic and even joyous disposition, the 
Prairie-‘‘Dog’’ has many friends, and ‘‘happy as a Prairie- 
‘Dog’ ’’ would be a far better comparison than ‘‘happy as a 
king.’’ His cousin, the woodchuck, has the air of being 
perpetually ‘‘in the dumps,’’ but the Prairie-‘‘Dog’’—never. 
His so-called bark is really a laugh, and his absurd little tail 
