A runway system usually consisted of a long, crooked runway and several branches. Two typical systems are illustrated in Fig. 16. The runway systems often were not clearly limited; they merged with other systems more or less completely. One map showed a runway system extending across 140 square meters and including 12 underground burrows. All of these runways seemed to be part of a single runway system but the system probably was used by more than one vole or family group of voles. Sixteen of the 22 maps that were made extended across areas between 50 and 90 square meters. One map, mentioned above, was larger and the remaining five smaller. The smallest extended across only 20 square meters. Of course, the area encompassed by a set of runways changed almost daily, as the voles extended some runways, added some and abandoned others in the course of their daily travels. [Illustration: FIG. 16. Maps of runway systems of the prairie vole. The runways follow an irregular course and are frequently changed. The solid lines represent surface runways and the dotted lines underground passages.] Each runway system contained underground nests. These were in chambers from 70 mm. to 200 mm. below the surface and were up to 200 mm. in diameter. Most systems that were mapped had from two to six of these burrows. Most of these were lined with dried grass and seemed to be used for delivering and nursing litters. Each burrow was connected to a surface runway by a tunnel. Often the tunnel was short and the hole opened almost directly into the burrow from the surface runway. Others had tunnels several meters long. Jameson (1947:137) reported every burrow to have two connections with the surface. In the present study, however, I found three arrangements in approximately equal frequency of occurrence: (1) one hole to one tunnel leading to a burrow; (2) two holes to two short tunnels which joined a long tunnel leading to a burrow; and (3) two separate tunnels from the surface to a burrow. The size, depth and number of underground burrows in the systems that I studied varied and so did those reported in the literature. Jameson (_loc. cit._) found burrows in eastern Kansas as deep as 18 inches, far deeper than any found in my study. Fisher (1945:435) reported none deeper than five inches in central Missouri. The soil data in my study, as well as in the two reports cited immediately above, were not adequate to permit conclusions, but the type and condition of the soil probably determine the extent of burrowing by the voles of any given locality.