None
of them are social. I mean by that you never find two Marmot homes
very close together. In this they differ from Johnny's smaller cousin,
Yap Yap the Prairie Dog. Yap Yap wouldn't be happy if he didn't have
close neighbors of his own kind. He has one of the most social
natures of all my little people."
"Tell us about him," begged Happy Jack Squirrel before Johnny Chuck,
who is naturally slow, could ask for the same thing.
"Yap Yap is the smallest of the Marmot family," said Old Mother
Nature. "In a way he is about as closely related to the Ground
Squirrels as he is to the Marmots. Johnny Chuck has only four
claws on each front foot, but Yap Yap has five, just as the Ground
Squirrels have. He looks very much like a small Chuck dressed in
light yellow-brown. His tail for the most part is the same color
as his coat, but the end is black, though there is one member of
the family whose tail has a white tip. In each cheek is a small
pouch, that is, a small pocket, and this is one of the things that
shows how closely related to the Spermophiles he is.
"As I said before, Yap Yap is very social by nature. He lives on
the great open plains of the West and Southwest, frequently where it
is very dry and rain seldom falls. When you find his home you are
sure to find the homes of many more Prairie Dogs very close at hand.
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