TOWN BUILDERS 77 
my eyes out, and begged hard to save even one, 
but the law was relentless. 
“ Prairie dogs are the cutest and most playful 
little creatures imaginable. They are not real 
dogs, as you can tell by their picture. They are 
the connecting link between the marmots and the 
squirrels, and they have all of the latter’s pretty 
ways. The dog town I knew covered about an 
acre, but in the dry, barren lands of western 
Texas, I am told, their colonies often run into 
neighborhoods all of fifty miles in length. Each 
mound marks the home of a dog family. Always 
there is a father and mother and generally a 
brood of young children. 
“ The dogs do not live in the mounds any more 
than the ants live in their hills. The mounds are 
a system of clever earthworks which serve two 
very important purposes: first for lookouts, as I 
have mentioned, and second as little hillocks to 
keep the water from running into their burrows, 
when the plains are flooded during the rainy sea¬ 
son. The entrance is always in the side of the 
mound, and the long, rather steep, sloping hall 
often runs twelve or fifteen feet before the family 
quarters are reached. These run off at a sharp 
turn from the hall, and are fair-sized rooms, all 
on a level with one another. Besides the living- 
room and nursery, there are storerooms and a sort 
of cesspool where the refuse is dumped. 
