HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE DOG. 27 
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they used their fore feet, throwing the dirt some distance to the 
rear with their hind feet. Sometimes they turned around and 
pushed the dirt before them with their paws. They had a singu- 
lar habit of using their noses as miniature battering-rams, and 
were constantly bunting the earth about their pen in this manner. 
They spent much of their time — sometimes one, and sometimes 
both — sitting erect on their mound with their paws hanging down 
in front, apparently taking a survey of their narrow quarters. At 
the slightest noise, they would dart into their hole shaking their 
little tails in a most comical and derisive manner. Hardly had 
they disappeared, however, when their heads would stealthily reap- 
pear with a gaze of curiosity and impertinence. Though ap- 
parently so timid, they sometimes exhibited an adventurous spirit, 
as shown by their frequent climbs to the roof of the adjoining 
coal-shed, while their hasty and awkward scrambling to get down 
was sometimes amusing to behold. Wishing to examine their 
under-ground habitation, I commenced November 24th, to dig 
them out. As their burrow passed under the coal shed, its depth 
was probably modified by this circumstance, and the task was not 
so great as I at first supposed. 
Fig. 7 
Burrow of the Prairie Dog. 
In the above sketch, A B C represents the outline of that cor- 
ner of the pen in which their hole was commenced, and C BD 
the sides of the coal-shed wunder which they burrowed. The 
passages were about three and a half inches in diameter, and 
nearly round, being slightly flattened from above, downward. 
