HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE DOG. 25 
tail being three and an eighth inches long. For want of a better 
place they were kept until spring in one‘of the large rooms of the 
university building, where a box was assigned for their especial 
use, with full permission to run about as they chose, provided 
they remained on their good behavior. Hardly had they been 
placed in their new quarters when they began to make a foraging 
expedition about the room, and discovering several boxes of 
choice mineralogical specimens wrapped in soft paper, pronounced 
the latter article confiscated, and proceeded to appropriate it to 
their own use. Seizing the paper with their teeth they would 
soon strip the specimen, and sitting on their hind legs, and using 
their paws as hands, would cram their mouth and cheek pouches 
with the plunder—the long ends protruding—and then with a 
peculiar ambling gait cross the room, and, having deposited their 
load under a case of apparatus, quickly return for more. This 
was continued for several days, till they had gathered an immense 
quantity of warm material composed of every scrap of wood or 
paper that could be obtained. Not satisfied with this wholesale 
plundering, they commenced an indiscriminate gnawing of table 
legs, cabinet cases, boxes, ete., in fact everything upon which they 
could exercise their sharp incisors except.the stove, which I 
noticed they carefully avoided after once trying their skill upon it. 
So troublesome did they at length become, that they were confined 
to their box, and only occasionally permitted to run at large 
under a watchful eye. At such times they would amble about the 
room, occasionally stopping and whisking their tail in a most 
amusing manner. At the slightest noise they would raise them- 
selves upon their hind legs, with their fore legs hanging down in 
front, and with a quick, sharp, intelligent look in all directions, 
endeavor to discover the cause of the disturbance. They soon 
became very tame, coming when called, and eating from my hand, 
though they would sometimes give strangers who were too familiar, 
a pretty sharp nip. Their food consisted of the blade, stock, and 
grain of corn, the blades and roots of grass, cabbage leaves, 
celery tops, apples, nuts, etc. Of peanuts they were very fond, 
but of nuts with a hard shell they seemed to have no conception - 
whatever. Taking them in their paws, they would try their teeth 
upon them, and then let them drop in apparent disgust ; in this re- 
spect acting very differently from their near relatives, the squirrels. 
When the nuts were cracked, however, they seemed to enjoy them 
as a great luxury. Their peculiar, short, quick and sharp voice 
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