Mammals The Prairie Dog 
HOUSE 
The prairie dog prefers to house himself; so, all we 
have to do is to give him a little ground of his own, 
and he will proceed at once to make him a burrow. 
The difficulty is to keep him from burrowing beyond 
the boundaries of his chicken-wire fence. If we feed 
him well, we may perhaps make him sufficiently lazy, 
so that he will not burrow so extensively under 
ground. However, if he seems likely to escape, we 
may build for him a cage, which ought to be at least 
ten feet square, with a zinc or cement bottom and 
chicken-wire sides. The floor of the cage should have 
on it two or three feet of solidly packed earth, so that 
the little prisoner can play at making a burrow. A 
most successful enclosure for a prairie dog home may 
be seen in the New York Zoological Park. It is a 
circular enclosure, eighty feet in diameter, surrounded 
by an iron fence, with an overhang, with walls going 
down to bed-rock. It occupies a rocky hill top, and 
contains about fifty fat, contented prairie dogs. 
FOOD 
Almost any green food is acceptable such as grass, 
clover, lettuce, celery tops, carrots, potatoes, apples, 
and in fact, almost any kind of vegetation that 
is green and succulent. In his native home the 
prairie dog never drinks, and when in confinement he 
seems to get sufficient water from his juicy green food. 
A pile of hay or straw should be kept in one corner of 
the enclosure, to afford the little prisoner entertain- 
ment. 
REFERENCES 
AMERICAN ANIMALS, Stone and Cram. 
Witp Animas Tuat Every CuItp SHoutp Know, Rogers. 
VisiT TO A PRatriIE Doc Vittace, Washington Irving. 
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