Making clear that the small mammal the French Canadians named prairie du chien (""dog of the prairie""?) is a rodent and not a canine, Chace concentrates on the black-tailed species, by far the more prevalent of the two extant, and describes its development, behavior, society, and relationships with neighbors. (It's a myth, he says, that the burrowing owl, rattlesnake, and prairie dog live in perfect harmony, as the owls and rattlers eat each others' babies and both eat those of the prairie dog.) As for the human neighbors who almost wiped them out, Chace notes that since the poison program's abatement in the Fifties the animals have made a comeback, and he points out some of the problems involved in controlling an animal whose range is 100 times the area of the six New England states. Chace's repetitive photographs don't show much except perhaps how ""cute"" (his word) the little creatures are, but his businesslike report is both older and fuller than either Eberle's Prairie Dogs in Prairie Dog Town (1974) or Alston's Come Visit a Prairie Dog Town(p. 318, J-98).