| 释义 |
ˈprairie-dog
A N. American rodent animal, genus Cynomys, of the squirrel family; spec. C. Ludovicianus, the Louisiana Marmot, a thickset short-tailed animal about a foot in length, and having a cry like the bark of a dog; large numbers of these animals live together in burrows, forming a ‘village’ or ‘town’.
1774J. R. Peyton in J. L. Peyton Adventures of my Grandfather (1867) xii. 121 One of the singular and interesting sights on my route was the villages of the Prairie dogs. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 37 On their return [they] killed a prairie dog, in size about that of the smallest of domestic dogs. 1808Pike Sources Mississ. ii. (1810) 156 note, The Wishtonwish of the Indians, prairie dogs of some travellers; or squirrels as I should be inclined to denominate them; reside on the prairies of Louisiana in towns or villages. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iv, We struck through a village of ‘prairie dogs’. 1859E. H. N. Patterson in L. Hafen Overland Routes to Gold Fields (1942) 110 Visited a prairie dog town this evening, which covers eighty acres. 1867[see lay-out 2 b]. 1870De B. R. Keim Sheridan's Troopers 301 Early in the afternoon we entered a prairie-dog town. 1902O. Wister Virginian xvi. 176 There is a brown skunk down in Arkansaw. Kind of prairie-dog brown. 1914B. M. Bower Flying U Ranch 135 There ain't enough grass in our lower field to graze a prairie dog. 1932S. Zuckerman Social Life Monkeys ii. 23 Most writers describe the prairie dog of North America as an animal that lives in vast colonies. 1947Chicago Daily News 20 Mar. 14/3 [They] make my book resemble a head of lettuce that has been gnawed by a pack of prairie dogs. 1961Maclean's Mag. 29 July 23, I've seen me..lying at the edge of a field in Saskatchewan spying on the prairie dogs. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 1 July 2-a/4 Flath contends, however, that the endangered black⁓footed ferret lives within prairie dog towns. |