1916.] 



IlTTEODUCTIOiT. 



7 



position, with shoulders bent, acts as a powerful machine to drive the 

 hammerlike muzzle into the earth. 



While at times virtually omnivorous, the prairie-dog finds its 

 principal food in grasses and other green plants. Koots and stems are 

 eaten as well as the tender leaves. In times of scant vegetation, or 

 during a drought, the villages are almost destitute of plant life, so 

 closely is every living bit cropped. 



Prairie-dogs are unquestionably responsible for great annual 

 damage to crops and pasturage. In certain areas the destruction 

 amounts to virtually the entire forage. Crops of grain and culti- 

 vated hay are often entirely ruined unless drastic preventive measures 

 are taken. In other out-of-the-way places the animals do not inter- 

 fere in the least with the operations of man. 



In captivity prairie-dogs eat almost any food, and are especially 

 fond of cakes and fruit; watermelon also is relished. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



Among the principal natural enemies of the prairie-dog are the 

 badger, coyote, black-footed ferret, eagle, rough-legged hawk, and 

 raven. Prairie-dog meat furnishes much of the food of individuals 

 of these species that live in close proximity to the villages. Many 

 absurd stories of the joint occupation of dens by prairie-dogs, rattle- 

 snakes, and burrowing owls have been written, but careful observers 

 have found that whatever the relation between these denizens of the 

 plain may be — and the creatures are often found together in the 

 villages — it is anything but advantageous to the prairie-dog, and 

 large numbers of its young are destroyed by the unwelcome visitors. 



NOMENCLATUTIE. 



Several systematic mammalogists early bestowed technical names 

 on the prairie-dog, in some cases basing both names and descrip- 

 tions wholly upon published accounts in explorers' narratives. The 

 resulting confusion in both zoology and nomenclature was con- 

 siderable. Systematists supposed the newly discovered prairie-dog 

 to be a species of marmot, and the first technical name properly pro- 

 posed for it, Ardomys ludovicianus, the Louisiana marmot, was given 

 by George Ord in the second American edition of Guthrie's Geogra- 

 phy, 1815. Ord's description was drawn from a stuffed specimen 

 of the prairie-dog in Peale's Museum, and his account of the habits 

 of the animal was taken chiefly from the history of Lewis and Clark's 

 expedition, with supplemental observations from the narratives of 

 Pike and Brackenridge. The specimen examined by Ord in Peale's 

 Museum was certainly the skin collected by Lewis and Clark, and 



