The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05


foreground life lof almost all mammals.
The RABBIT and the rat secure a cur
rent of air by forming a bolthole in
connection with their system of pass
ages; but the, fox, the badger, and
many of the field voles and mice seem
Indifferent to any such precaution.
There is no doubt that whatever gave
the first impulse to burrow, many ami
mails look upon this to us most unpleas-
ant exertion as a form of actual
amusement. 1t also refers right of
property. Prairie dogs constantly set
to work to dig holes merely for the
love of the thing. If they cannot
have suitable place to exercise their
talent in, they will gnaw into boxes or
chests of drawers, and there burrow,
to the great detriment of the clothes
therein contained In an inclosed
prairie-dog town" they have been
known to mine until the super-incum-
bent earth collapsed and buried the
greater number. A young prairie dog
let loose in a small gravel-foored
house instantly dug ahole large enough
to sit in, turned round in it, and bit
the first person who attempted to
touch him. Property gave him cour-
age, for before he had been as meek as
a mouse.
1t is noticeable that the two weak
est and least numerous of our mice,
the dormouse and the harvest-mouse,
do not borrow, but make nests; and
that these do not multiply or maintain
their numbers like the burrowing mice
and Vn1nG tho of "a tharn a
members of very closely allied species,
some of which do burrow, while others
| do not, seems to indicate that the hab-
it is an acquired one: In this connec-
| ton 1t is worth noting that many ami
| mails which do not burrow at other
times form burrows in which to con-
ceal and protect their young, or, If
| they do burrow, make different kind
| of a more elaborate character Among
| these nursery burrows are those of the
| dog, the fox, the sand-martin, the
| kingfisher and the sheldrake. Foxhound
| filters never do so well as when the
mother is allowed to make burrow on
| the sunny side of straw stack. In
| time she will work this or feet into
| the stack, and keep the puppies at the
| far end, while she lies in the entrance.
| Nixens either dig or appropriate a
| clean burrow for their cubs, which is a
natural habit or, at any rate, one ac-
| CURED previously to the use Of earths
| by adult foxes
The sand-martins are, however, the
most complete example of creatures
| which have taken to underground life
| entirely to protect their young, and
abandon it with joy the instant these
have flown. How far the kingfsher and
| the sheldrake contribute to the making
of the burrows in which they lay their
eggs is doubtful, but it is very nota-
| BILE change of habit in birds of such
strong flight and open air, active hab-
it's. 1t may be paralleled by the case
Of the stormy petrels and fork-tailed
petrels, true ocean birds, which, new
| ertheless, abandon the sea and air tc
dig deep holes in the soil of the Hebri-
dean islets, and rear their young in
J these dark and tortuous passages. Rab-
bits, rats and some other rodents make
nursery burrow of a very rudimen-
tary kind, having only one opening
which the mothers close up when leav-
ing the nest This probably gives the
clew to the process by which the true
underground animals" have beer
evolved. First they scratched holes in
which to shelter their young. Their
they made use of the same device tc
protect themselves, and acquired much
greater skill in working, and some
notifications of coats and claws to dc
this with comfort and effect In time
the habit became so easy that it's exer-
else afforded them pleasure; and thus
we have the spectacle of the prairie
dog who digs holes for amusement
From the New York Tribune.