To Destroy Prairie Dogs. 
| Chief among the enemies of the Western 
farmer are the rodents—mice, ground squirrels 
and marmots—and of these rodents perhaps the 
most harmful is the prairie dog. They subsist 
chiefly on grass and greatly injure the range, 
but are above all destructive to cultivated crops. 
The Bureau of Biological Survey has long been 
experimenting to discover a cheap and effective 
means of destroying these animals, and it has de¬ 
cided that the two most efficient and economical 
destructive agents are poisoned grain and bi 
sulphide of carbon. In winter and early spring, 
when the ordinary food of the prairie dog is 
•scarce and difficult to obtain, 80 or 90 per cent, 
of the animals in any dog town may be destroyed 
1 by a proper and systematic use of poisoned grain, 
at a cost of only 10 or 15 cents per acre. The 
remainder may be killed by the use of bisulphide 
of carbon, the cost of which should be only about 
I cent per hole. 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the Chief of the Bio¬ 
logical Survey, recently issued a circular of in- 
; struction on this subject which is of interest to 
all farmers who live in the range of the prairie 
dog. 
Sulphate of strychnine is the most efficient 
poison now known for the destruction of prairie 
dogs, but great care must be taken to procure the 
strychnia sulphate, since the strychnine usually 
sold by druggists is not soluble in water, and will 
be ineffective. One and a half ounces of 
strychnia sulphate should be dissolved in two and 
a half gallons of water by heating it in a covered 
vessel. This will be sufficient to poison a bushel 
of grain, which should be added to the water 
and the whole allowed to simmer, stirring it 
1 occasionally until the moisture is taken up by the 
grain. Or the mixture may be allowed to stand 
| over night to absorb the moisture. 
Half a teaspoonful of this poisoned grain 
| should be scattered about outside the burrow and 
the poison should be placed there in the evening, 
so that it may be eaten by the prairie dogs early 
in the morning, and not be left to be picked up 
by the useful birds which might feed on it dur¬ 
ing the day. Green alfalfa chopped up, green 
stems of young wheat or barley, or corn, and the 
green or ripening heads of wheat or barley may 
j also be used, being poisoned with a mixture of 
one ounce of strychnine dissolved in a half gal¬ 
lon of water, to twenty-five pounds of the green 
food. The green food should be sprinkled with 
! the solution of strychnine in water, and the ma 
terial should be put in or near the burrows in 
the evening or early in the morning. 
Bisulphide of carbon kills by the fumes, which 
are heavier than ait and tend to sink to the bot¬ 
tom of the hole. This is a volatile liquid which 
loses its strength rapidly on exposure to the air. 
It must be kept in tightly corked bottles or cans. 
It should not be used in a haphazard way, but 
ought to be introduced only into burrows which 
animals have been seen to enter. 
A tablespoon of crude bisulphide should be 
l poured on a corncob, a lump of earth, a piece of 
1 
horse manure, or anything that will absorb the 
liquid, and then thrown as far as possible down 
the burrow and the opening closed. Bisulphide 
can be used with special advantage after a rain, 
when the interstices in the soil are filled with 
water and the poisonous fumes thus confined to 
the burrow. 
The greatest care must be exercised in hand¬ 
ling both the poisoned grain and the bisulphide 
of carbon. The grain, of course, will kill any¬ 
thing that eats it, as chickens and hogs; while 
the bisulphide is highly explosive and should 
never be opened in a vicinity of a light or fire. 
By means of these directions the Bureau be¬ 
lieves it possible to destroy with the poison the 
great bulk of the inhabitants of the prairie dog 
colony in winter or spring when food is scarce, 
and then to kill the remaining animals with bi¬ 
sulphide of carbon. 
Death of the Tasmanian Wolf. 
Probably only a few of the millions of visitors 
to the New York Zoological Park have appre¬ 
ciated the interest and rarity of the so-called 
Tasmanian wolf, which has long been on exhibi¬ 
tion in one of the dens near the wolves. This 
was a large, smooth-haired prick-eared animal, 
looking not very unlike a pointer dog, but with 
a long, heavy tail. It was yellow in color, and 
marked by a dozen black stripes running across 
the body. It has been in the possession of the 
Zoological Society for six years. 
Very few of these animals have ever been held 
in captivity, and owing to its ravages on the 
sheep flocks of Tasmania, it has been practically 
exterminated there through traps and poison. It 
was one of the most prized specimens in the so¬ 
ciety’s collections, and its death is a very serious 
loss. Though dog-like in form, the animal is a 
true marsupial. 
Of Baby Rabbits. 
Milford, Conn., Aug. 10. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: To the sportsman and outdoor man 
no animal is more familiar than the cottontail, 
or gray rabbit, but how many of us have seen 
these animals when very young. Not many I 
fancy. 
This is not because they are scarce or hard 
to find, but simply because in late spring and 
summer we do not usually find ourselves where 
the young rabbits are, or if we are there, we 
do not look for them. 
I have myself seen these little fellows when 
they were so small that their eyes were not open, 
and their ears were no longer than those of a 
rat. This litter, which numbered four, if I 
recollect aright, lay in a little hollow place on 
the top of a cedar grown gravel ridge, twelve 
or fifteen feet above the level of the general 
country, and the young were covered over with 
a shelter of shredded cedar bark, mingled with 
dried grass, a few dried leaves and fur from the 
mother’s coat. No one would ever have recog¬ 
nized that there was anything on the ground 
save the ordinary floor of the forest, but for 
the fact that the old dog, trotting just ahead of 
me, put down his nose and began to smell the 
ground, and then made one or two motions as 
if to dig. I stopped him and investigated, and 
soon brought to light the little rabbits which, 
after examination, were covered up and left in 
their home. 
A week later two of them were carried over 
to the house and put in a box with a cat, all 
of whose kittens save one had been destroyed. 
The cat received the foundlings very quietly, 
and for a few days all went well. Then one 
of the little leverets disappeared. I do not think 
it had been eaten, but I believe it got lost in 
some fashion. The’ other did very well, grew 
YOUNG RABBITS. 
