496 
THE PRAIRIE DOG. 
The Hackee moves into its winter quarters early in November, and, excepting occasional 
reappearances whenever the sun happens to shine with peculiar warmth, is not seen again 
until the beginning of spring. The young are produced in May, and there is generally a 
second brood in August. Their number is about four or five. The male Hackee is rather 
a pugnacious animal, and it is said that during their combats their tails are apt to snap 
asunder from the violence of their movements. It is undoubtedly true that those members 
are wonderfully brittle, but whether they undergo such spontaneous amputation is not so 
certain. 
Pretty as it is, and graceful as are its movements, it hardly repays the trouble of keeping 
it in a domesticated state ; for its temper is very uncertain, and it is generally sullen towards 
its keeper. Although the food of the Hackee is mostly of a vegetable character, it is occa- 
sionally diversified with other substances ; for the Chipping Squirrel, like his relative, is 
occasionally carnivorous in his appetite. One of these animals was detected in the very act 
of robbing a bird’ s nest and devouring the callow young. 
Between the squirrels and the marmots there are one or two intermediate links, one of 
which has already been noticed in Tamias, and another is found in the genus Spermophilus ; 
also in Cynomys, to which the Pit alkie Dog belongs. 
The Prairie Dog, as it is popularly called, is found in very great plenty along the course 
of the Missouri and its tributaries, and also near the Eiver Platte. It congregates together in 
vast numbers in certain spots where the soil is favorable to its subterranean habits of life and 
the vegetation is sufficiently luxuriant to afford it nourishment. The color of this animal is a 
reddish-brown upon the back, mixed with gray and black in a rather vague manner. The 
abdomen and throat are grayish -white, and the short tail is clothed for the first half of its 
length with hair of the same tint as that of the body, and for the remaining half is covered 
with deep, blackish-brown hair, forming a kind of brush. The cheek-pouches are rather 
small, and the incisor teeth are large and protruding from the month. The length of the 
animal rather exceeds sixteen inches, the tail being a little more than three inches long. 
The cheek-pouches are about three-quarters of an inch in depth, and are half that measure- 
ment in diameter. 
The Prairie Dog is a burrowing animal, and as it is very gregarious in its habits, the spot 
on which it congregates is literally honeycombed with its tunnels. There is, however, a kind 
of order observed in the “ Dog-towns,” as these warrens are popularly called, for the animals 
always leave certain roads or streets in which no burrow is made. The affairs of the commu- 
nity seem to be regulated by a single leader, called the Big Dog, who sits before the entrance 
of his burrow, and issues his orders from thence to the community. In front of every burrow 
a small heap of earth is raised, which is made from the excavated soil, and which is generally 
employed as a seat for the occupant of the burrow. 
As long as no danger is apprehended, the little animals are all in lively motion, sitting 
upon their mounds, or hurrying from one tunnel to another as eagerly as if they were trans- 
acting the most important business. Suddenly a sharp yelp is heard, and the peaceful scent 
is in a moment transformed into a whirl of indistinguishable confusion. Quick barks resound 
on every side, the air is filled with a dust-cloud, in the midst of which is indistinctly seen an 
intermingled mass of flourishing legs and whisking tails, and in a moment the populous 
“town” is deserted. Not a “dog” is visible, and the whole spot is apparently untenanted. 
But in a few minutes a pair of dark eyes are seen gleaming at the entrance of some burrow, 
a set of glistening teeth next shine through the dusky recess, and in a few minutes first one 
and then another Prairie Dog issues from his retreat, until the whole community is again in 
lively action. 
The title of Prairie Dog has been given to this animal on account of the sharp yelping 
sound which it is in the habit of uttering, and which has some resemblance to the barking of 
a very small and very peevish lapdog. Every time that it yelps it gives its tail a sharp jerk. 
This peculiar sound is evidently employed as a cry of alarm ; for as soon as it is uttered all 
