THE PRAIRIE DOG

This brief look at a familiar species provides appealing color photos--together with vague information on anatomy, life cycle, and habitat. It's hardly enlightening to read, for instance, that ""A prairie dog town might be the size of a city block or smaller. Or it might be much larger, covering 100 acres. . ."" Elsewhere, Beers says that the prairie dog ""spends much of the time during the cold months underground,"" but doesn't discuss hibernation (other sources indicate that the mountain prairie dog does hibernate). While the discussion of the conflict between ranchers and naturalists will make this useful for endangered-species assignments, the book as a whole would have been improved by tighter editing. Glossary; index.