1878.] The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake. 205 
At the first approach of an intruder,a general scampering takes 
place throughout the village with warning cries; upon reaching 
their mounds they sit perfectly erect, like so many sentinels, curi- 
ous to know the cause of all the commotion. Upon nearer ap- 
` proach they sit more closely in the entrances, and threaten most 
_ vehemently, throwing up their tails in a very comical manner with 
each energetic bark, their noisy chatterings mingled with liquid, 
gurgling tones, Not infrequently, they will allow one to approach 
within a rod or two, growing still more vociferous in their scold- 
ings, and occasionally making very amusing little dashes, as if to 
overawe the intruder. In a twinkling they disappear and continue 
their gurgling remonstrances a few feet below the entrance. It is 
very hard to obtain specimens by shooting, for no matter how badly 
wounded, they elude their would be captor, instinctively—one 
might say, automatically, for I have seen them escape beyond 
reach after the rifle had spattered their brains over the mounds! 
A readier way to obtain them is by inverting a barrel or high box 
half filled with sand over an entrance. They will find their way 
to the surface of the sa; but cannot return, and are thus securely 
caged. 
& A dog, or other small animal dying in the burrow, is allowed 
to remain, and it is rare that a mound, not freshly made, will not 
= show skeletons of one or more. 
I have noticed the young most frequently i in May, less so in 
August, or early September, in litters of from four to six or seven, 
= playing about the entrances. They are not far behind the adult 
_ in their noisy chatter, but less timorous, remaining last on the 
surface, and responding to the parents’ gurgling below, as if much 
__ the wiser. 
= The prairie dog readily becomes accustomed to the haunts of 
man, their villages sometimes being scattered through the out- 
skirts of thriving towns. Though easily tamed to feed from one’s 
hand, they resent caresses, enforcing their scoldings with ready 
= “use of their sharp incisors. In a little town in Western Kansas, a 
_ pair of tame ones after frequent changes, took up their abode in a 
large, open lot, where they were very noisy in their protestation 
against intrusion, especially of the school children and dogs. A 
young lady teacher in passing by, incurred their highest resent- 
ment. They would follow her closely, often to the school house 
door, a i canes of several hundred yards, chattering noisily, and 
Mans ae nts eo 9 en 
