Do you know how many kinds of four-legged wild animals live in North America? Well, there are more than five hundred. The smallest is a little fellow called Pigmy Shrew. He weighs only about as much as a dime. And the biggest one is the Bison, or American Buffalo. His weight may be two thousand pounds. Scientists call all of these creatures mammals, instead of just "animals." One of the queerest of our mammals is the Prairie Dog. Actually he is no more a dog than you or I! In fact, he is related to the squirrel, though he never climbs a tree. He lives in parts of the western plains and hills, and his home is a deep underground burrow. Into this safe hideout he pops at the first sign of danger. Generally these comical characters like each othe's company so much that dozens or hundreds of them live close together, like people in a village. These places are often called "dog towns.' Farther west, in the salt water along the California coast, there is the California Sea Lion. He was given this name because he lives in the sea and has a loud, rough sort of voice. The fact is that he belongs to the seal family and is a marvelous swimmer. Sometimes you see this six- to eight-foot mammal doing tricks in a circus.
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He lives in burrows underground, but he never crowds into "towns" as the Prairie Dog does. The moment you see a Bobcat you know that he is a true cat, even though his tail is so short that it looks stumpy. His home is in more or less wooded country over most of the United States, southern Canada and Mexico. The only regions where he does not live are thickly settled places and treeless parts of the Plains States.
This big, powerful beast is nearly three feet long and may reach a weight of thirty pounds. One reason he looks so large is that his fur is thick.
Coyotes, which look like small, skinny wolves, are common in the open Plains as well as in rough mountain places of the West. They eat just about every kind of animal that they can catch. Some of them are also found in Alaska as well as southward through Central America.
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The Red Fox, a smaller, much better-looking fellow, is at home through nearly all of the United States, Canada and Labrador. In the Far North his hair may be quite silvery in color. These "Silver Fox" furs are much more valuable than the reddish ones.
