THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 293 



•with insects, among the most noticeable of which are the mosquito, the 

 large "horse-fly," and the "black fly" — a small dipterous insect with 

 black body and white legs. The last two species iniiict almost incon- 

 ceivable torture on the domestic animals, effectually keeping in poor 

 condition those turned out to graze, and obliging the farmer regularly 

 to make a large smoke at night to windward of his cattle yard. The 

 mosquitos are said to be more abundant here during June and July 

 than in the swamps of Louisiana, and are a most serious annoyance, 

 both by day and night, to those whose pursuits call them abroad. The 

 honey-bee is unknown here, but is reported to have appeared in the 

 southern portion of the Territory within a few j'^ears. * * 



On the habits of the Gojiher of Illinois ( Geomys hiirsarins). 



BY J. B. PARVIN, ILLINOIS COLLEGE. 



I send to the Institution a young gopher, a little more than naif 

 grown, which I hope will reach you in safety. If he arrives alive, 

 take a flour barrel and fill it half full of moist earth, potatoes, crn, or 

 beets, at the bottom, for food, and he will dig down and help himself, if 

 the earth is compact, so that he can make a hole in it without its 

 caving in upon him. I have never seen them drink; but it will be well 

 to set a dish of water where he can come out on the top of the earth 

 and drink it. Keep the barrel covered loosely, but so that he cannot 

 climb out ; and set it on a floor or plank, so that if he should get out 

 he need not get easily into the ground. His habits of" digging and eat- 

 ing you will see only by careful watching in the barrel. He uses his 

 paws and his pouches to carry both dirt and food. He digs long holes 

 in the ground, extending sometimes for rods or even miles, about two 

 feet below the surface, and at suitable distances makes side cuts, at an 

 angle of about 45^, running from the longitudinal main track up to the 

 surface. Through these side cuts he carries up the dirt from the trunk 

 below, as long as he finds it convenient to retain it, in his poaches — then 

 he turns back and fills this side cut full of quite hard earth down to his 

 main trenches, and then makes another and another side cut further 

 on — filling all these up and stopping every crevice where light or air 

 can enter, so that his abode, when finished, is one long winding pas- 

 sage, wholly excluded from all light and air, from one to three or four, 

 perhaps more feet under ground — generally about two feet, except in 

 places where it is made deeper to deposite food in piles, or to procure 

 water. In these subterranean passages he lives at all times, and 

 gathers food, roots, &c., in summer, and stores them in large deep 

 holes for winter. He is never seen above ground except in the rare 

 cases when food becomes scarce in one field, or for some other cause 

 he prefers another ; then he will sometimes condescend to walk a part 

 of the way above ground, rather than persevere in his migration by 

 digging below, and then for most part only in the night. Whether 

 they live in droves or families, or only in pairs, is uncertain ; but 

 if two strange gophers are put together, tliey at once attack each 



