THE PRAIRIE-" DOG" 



7? 



Some plainsmen claim that these interesting 

 little creatures are able to locate their towns 

 away from streams because they burrow down 

 until they strike water, but Dr. Merriam points 

 out the fact that in some regions they live where 

 the nearest veins of artesian- well water are 1,000 

 feet below the surface. As a matter of fact 

 they can live without drinking. 



The Prairie-" Dog " is at home — where not 

 exterminated by poisoned wheat put into his 

 burrow — from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona 

 northward to the Canadian boundary, and on 

 the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in 

 Utah and Colorado. It is most abundant in 

 Montana, Wyoming and western Kansas. One 

 of the largest Prairie-" Dog " towns yet re- 

 ported begins in Trego County, Kansas, five 

 miles west of the one-hundredth meridian, and 

 extends along the divide north of the Smoky 

 Hill River, practically without a break, to Colo- 

 rado, a total distance of about one hundred 

 miles. This town varies in width from half a 

 mile to five miles, and on the top of the divide 

 the nearest water is believed to be 350 feet below 

 the surface. (Arthur B. Baker.) 



It is now (1903) reported that because of the 

 wholesale destruction of wolves and foxes, the 

 enormous increase of Prairie-" Dogs" in Kansas, 

 Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado has become a 

 genuine scourge to farmers and cattlemen. The 

 number of "Dogs" in that region is now esti- 

 mated at several millions, and a general cam- 

 paign against them has been begun. The meth- 

 od employed for their destruction is a spoonful 

 of poisoned wheat placed in the mouth of each 

 burrow. Beyond doubt, this will soon reduce 

 their numbers to reasonable limits. 



When he is not too numerous, I am the friend 

 of the Prairie-" Dog. " He is as bright and cheer- 

 ful as the day is long, and he enlivens many a 

 dreary landscape, but at the same time he often 

 changes fine, grass-covered cattle ranges into 

 dreary wastes, and causes great losses to cat- 

 tle owners. I hope, however, that he will be 

 tolerated at least to the extent that systematic 

 destruction will stop short of extermination. 



It is not true that the Prairie-" Dog " lives in 

 peace and harmony in the same burrow with the 

 rattlesnake and burrowing owl. The snakes 

 would make short work of the young Prairie- 

 " Dogs," and the latter would quickly kill the 



owl! It is safe to surmise that when a deadly 

 and quarrelsome rattler invades the home of a 

 Prairie-" Dog " family, the latter speedily seeks 

 a home elsewhere. The burrowing owl is in the 

 habit of taking refuge in abandoned burrows, 

 and nesting in them, to save the labor of dig- 

 ging a burrow for itself. In the Philadelphia 

 Zoological Garden Mr. A. E. Brown once tried 

 the experiment of associating burrowing owls 

 and Prairie-" Dogs." The owls were immedi- 

 ately killed and torn to pieces by the "Dogs." 



A Prairie-" Dog " Burrow. 



At last a Prairie-" Dog" burrow has been 

 completely exposed by digging, and reported 

 upon in full in one of the publications of 

 the Biological Survey. In the "Yearbook of 

 the Department of Agriculture" for 1901, Dr. 

 C. Hart Merriam publishes a valuable paper on 

 "The Prairie-Dog of the Great Plains," 

 which contains the following illustrated descrip- 

 tion: 



"The holes go down for some distance at a 

 very steep angle and then turn at nearly a right 

 angle and continue horizontally, rising some- 

 what toward the end. The nests are in side 

 chambers connecting with the horizontal part 

 of the burrow, and usually, if not always, at a 

 somewhat higher level. (See H in figure.) 

 Recently, at Alma, Nebraska, W. H. Osgood 

 dug out a burrow, of which he made a careful 

 diagram, accompanied by measurements. 



"In this case the burrow went down nearly 

 vertically to a depth of 14J feet below the surface, 

 when it turned abruptly and became horizontal 

 as shown in the diagram. The horizontal part 

 was 13J feet in length. One-third of the hori- 

 zontal part (the terminal 4 feet, F) and two old 

 nests and passageways (E) were plugged with 

 black earth brought in from the surface layer, 

 which was very different from the light-colored 

 clayey earth in which the greater part of the 

 burrow lay. 



"Four or five feet below the entrance was a 

 diverticulum, or short side passage (G), probably 

 used as a place in which to turn around when 

 the animals come back to take a look at the in- 

 truder before finally disappearing in the bot- 

 toms of their burrows. It is also used, appar- 

 ently, as a resting-place where they bark and 

 scold after retreating from the mouths of the 



