\ 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
495 
“hibernate where the winter is cold, and are believed to fast during the entire 
^period of their hibernation. Their burrows are on the slopes of hillocks, often 
near the roots of a tree. They extend from twenty to thirty feet from an 
opening, rising inside into a large room, which serves as the dormitory for the 
entire family, and as a nursery for the young ones. Farmers in New England 
sometimes flood them out, some¬ 
times kill them with rifles, but 
more frequently catch them in 
steel-traps hidden by grass and 
leaves. In defending himself the 
woodchuck bites most severely, and 
is no mean adversary. Although 
his walk is plantigrade, that is, 
done on the soles of his feet, he 
occasionally climbs up trees or 
bushes to the height of a few 
feet, taking a sun-bath upon an 
outstretched limb. He cleans his 
face and smooths down his fur. 
His fur is of no value, and his 
flesh eaten only when one is pressed 
by hunger, or in search of a new 
sensation. Its taste is said to 
resemble very much that of pork, European marmot {Aretomys marmot*). 
but is more decided. The wood¬ 
chuck is called, sometimes, the Maryland, the European , or the Alpine marmot. 
The Prairie Marmot, or Prairie Dog ( Spermophilus or Cynomys ludovi- 
cianus) , sometimes called the Wish-ton-Wish, is about thirteen inches long; 
the upper parts are reddish-brown, mixed with gray and black; the under parts 
are of a dull whitish tint; it has cheek- 
pouches about three-fourths of an inch deep, 
and its body is short, thick and clumsy. It 
lives on the prairies of the Missouri and 
Platte rivers. It is found as far south, also, 
as Texas, New Mexico and the borders of 
California. In the colder parts of this region 
they hibernate, but remain active all the 
year around in the warmer localities. The 
prairie dogs are gregarious in their habits. 
They live in burrows. Before the entrance 
to each of these there is a little mound. 
The front hall slopes downward and inward, 
at an angle of about forty degrees. From 
this passages diverge sideways or upwards. At the end is a bed of dry grass. 
Several hundred of these burrows are often congregated into a village, called 
by the hunters and travellers a dog-town. The inhabitants of such a town 
often sit upon their haunches on these little mounds that form, a sort of front 
door to their burrows, surveying the landscape o’er and uttering a sharp, short 
sound, called barking. As they bark they wiggle their tails, as though to say, 
