522 AUDUBON 



groups of from fifty to two hundred, and their movements 

 are as regular as those of a flock of White Pelicans, so 

 that if the oldest Elk starts in any one direction, all the 

 rest follow at once in his tracks. Where he stops, they 

 all stop, and at times all will suddenly pause, range 

 themselves as if a company of dragoons, ready to charge 

 upon the enemy ; which, however, they seldom if ever at- 

 tempt. After dinner Mr. Illingsworth told me he would 

 go and shoot a Buffalo calf for me — we will see. Bell, 

 Harris, Squires, and myself went off to shoot some Prairie- 

 dogs, as the Arctomys ludovicianus is called. After 

 walking over the hills for about one mile, we came to 

 the "village," and soon after heard their cries but not 

 their barkings. The sound they make is simply a " chip, 

 chip, chip," long and shrill enough, and at every cry the 

 animal jerks its tail, without however erecting it upright, 

 as I have seen them represented. Their holes are not 

 perpendicular, but oblique, at an angle of about forty 

 degrees, after which they seem to deviate; but whether 

 sideways or upwards, I cannot yet say. I shot at two of 

 them, which appeared to me to be standing, not across 

 their holes, but in front of them. The first one I never 

 saw after the shot ; the second I found dying at the en- 

 trance of the burrow, but at my appearance it worked 

 backwards. I drew my ramrod and put the end in its 

 mouth ; this it bit hard but kept working backwards, and 

 notwithstanding my efforts, was soon out of sight and 

 touch. Bell saw two enter the same hole, and Harris 

 three. Bell saw some standing quite erect and leaping 

 in the air to see and watch our movements. I found, 

 by lying down within twenty or thirty steps of the hole, 

 that they reappeared in fifteen or twenty minutes. This 

 was the case with me when I shot at the two I have men- 

 tioned. Harris saw one that, after coming out of its hole, 

 gave a long and somewhat whistling note, which he thinks 

 was one of invitation to its neighbors, as several came out 



