Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-10-20
A Prairie Dog Hunt in the Far West.
BY ROBERT p. HUDSON.

ldr west. 1o lives Ill VllldSeS anu
doesn't seem to be disturbed by the
of civilization. / have
seen dog towns on the plains of Kan
sas in sight of a railroad station of
two thousand inhabitants. Why
this little animal should be called
dog | do not understand. He does
not resemble a dog in any particular.
His fur is a dark brown tipped with
gray, head like that of squirrel or
rat, almost no ears, sharp nose, large
teeth, body resembling our ground
hog, large stomach, stumpy tail and
legs, and blount claws. A full grown
dog is not larger than gray squirrel.
When taken young he is easily do
mesticated. Perhaps little story of
my experience among these dogs
would be interesting.
Early one morning one year ago
party of six, including myself, started
out from the town of Pratt, Kansas,
to take hunt on the vast prairies.
We rode in carriage drawn by two
wild Oregon horses that sped along
at a break-neck speed. / carried a
shotgun, while others of the party
carried shot-guns and Winchester
rifles. We sat so that two could
shoot in front, two at the sides, two
in the rear.
A few miles from town we left the
highway, and turned the galloping
horses across the grassy, undulating
plain, avoiding as much as possible
the buffalo "wallows" with which
the plain was literally pitted. Each
one of us sat ready in case a jack
rabbit or other game ran across his
"bows". No halt was to be made
at the appearance of game, but "shot
as you run" was the order. Occasion
ally a jack-rabbit sprang up and
limped away, or ran for life, but if
our front rank did not bring him
down the second or the third did.
Larks, prairie chickens, ducks,
jack-rabbits, coyotes and dogs all fell
before the storm of shot which we
constantly Numbered at them. By
noon we had driven round of twen-
ty-five miles, and l had emptied for
ty-eight shells. We now looked for
a place where we might stop and
take lunch. A prairie-dog town was
sighted and thence we drove. When
three hundred yards away l could
distinctly hear their barking, which
reminded me of the noise made by
squirrels. We dismounted and eau
tiously approached within fifty yards
of the dancing, barking dogs. BY
each burrow was little mound about
a foot high and which was dog,
some sat and barked, some danced,
while Others dived in and out of
their burrows. Schreech-owls few
in and out of these dens or sat on the
mounds with the dogs. Evidently
they all lived together. The grass
was eaten down close to the ground
in the village, which led me to be-
lieve that this is the only food these
little animals have.
AT given signal we fired a volley
into their midst, and instantly every
dog disappeared. The owls rose up
in the air and chartered wildly about
us. Numbers Of them were brought
down on the wing, but we had more
trouble in securing a specimen Of the
dog. Many dogs were shot as they
made their appearance, but invaribly
they fell back into their burrows OF
were drug back by their companions
Finally we succeeded in twisting &
dead one out with splinter which
we detached from post. What 6
fearful odor that little dog! We took
him back to town. 1t is seldom the
hunter comes into possession of one
of these dogs, 50 we found it a great
curiosity to those who had lived
there for years. This is owing to the
fact that when the dog is shot he al
ways drops back into his den, which
is often many feet deep usually reach
ing water.
The burrows | found to be abOu
thirty feet apart. had no means o
estimating the population of thes'
villages, but those ] saw l believe
would not number more than 50t
dogs each. l don't think they would
be fit for food, yet l cannot believe
they belong to the canine family.
/ did not learn the name of TIT
} village just mentioned, nor did Sc,
its mayor to know him. But if
| had I should have tnll him IN mi