Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1899 — BURROWING ANIMAL& [ARTICLE]

BURROWING ANIMAL&

Some Dig Hole* Merely for the I>lmM of 'the Thing, f : fly'laP Ventilation, or rather the want of ggl must be a difficulty in the underground! life of almost all mammals. The rafcif bit and the rat secure a current of air? by forming a bolt hole In canneetMH| with their system of passages, but Him fox, the badger and many of the flajH voles and mice seem indifferent to any

such precaution. There is no dotfbgll j that whatever gave the first impifii» | to burrow, many animals look npoUkm this to us most unpleasant exertion m|| | a form of actual amusement 'lt alsirl j confers a right to property. I Prairie dogs constantly set to warfc|| 1 to dig holes merely for the love of th*' J | thing. If they cannot have a auitabla> : | 1 place to exercise their talent in th«yl| J will gnaw Into boxes or chests of drawria f ers and there burrow, to the great defc*4| 1 riment of the clothes therein contati||fl f ed. In an inclosed prairie dog “town’ll f they have been known to mine untf£|g 1 the superincumbent earth collapia|9j and burled the greater number. Jujl f young prairie dog let loose in a small?! 1 gravel-floored house Instantly dug a| | hole large enough to sit in, turned!! | round in it and bit the first person wJm|9J attempted to touch him. Property ggNM'f him courage, for before he had beestfij as meek as a mouse. 1 It is noticeable that the two weakeptn and least numerous of our mice, tb«| dormouse and the harvest mouse, d* j not burrow, but make nests, and that ! these do not multiply or maintain their Jj numbers like the burrowing mice aaftS voles. But the fact that, there area members of very closely allied some of which do burrow, while otbes||9l do not, seems to Indicate that the habit j is an acquired one. ■ In this connection it is worth noting 1 that many animals which do not bur- Jj row at other limes form burrows: ha 1 which to conceal and protect tbettjjl young, or, if they do borrow, make*! different kind of a more elaborate || character. Among these nursery b«rrows are those of the dog, the fox anfifl sand martin, the kingfisher and thefl sheldrake. Foxhound litters never do ] so well as when the mother is all owed J to make a burrow on the sunny sidSH{ of a straw stack. In time she wilt a work this five or six feet into the stferaßS and keep the puppies at the far end,!

while she lies at the entrance. Vlxenl either dig or appropriate a clean bln row for their cubs, which Is a nal ord habit, or, at any rate, one acquired fri|| viousiy to the use of earth by a«9 foxes.—London Spectator. f