Pocket-gopher 567 



I have never seen the nest of talpoides, but I took 5 well- young 

 developed unborn young from a female on June 29, 1892. 

 They were certainly within two weeks of birth. A female 

 taken alive August ist was evidently nursing. On September 

 8, 1884, I captured 2 half-grown young, and again saw others 

 that month. 



Louis J. Ohnlmus informs me that bottce^ which abounds 

 in Golden Gate Park, breeds in the fall and winter, and has 

 5 to 6 in the litter. In the autumn the young apparently 

 scatter and begin their solitary life by burrowing for themselves. 

 At this time the size of the Gopher may be fairly estimated 

 by the calibre of its tunnel and by the number of mounds it 

 throws up. 



The food of the Pocket-gopher is chiefly if not exclusively food 

 vegetable; roots, grain, grass, and the leaves of various plants stor. 

 are staples. '^^^ 



In Manitoba during the spring of the year I have several 

 times ploughed out its storehouses and found the grain in them 

 — amounting to three or four pints — not mixed, but each kind 

 in a separate pile. 



In Minnesota, Herrick says ^ "the main runway was pro- 

 vided with blind alleys at intervals, each of which was some- 

 what expanded at the end. Here a store of grass roots is 

 accumulated in quantities varying from a pint to nearly half 

 a peck. The amount seems to be intentionally limited, so that 

 the slight heating shall stimulate the roots to fresh gro\vth, 

 thus providing fresh supplies for the winter. Larger chambers 

 are constructed for the tubers of helianthus, etc." 



In Colorado I dug out a food store of the fossor species. 

 The plants in it were cut in sections about two inches long, 

 that is, to fit the cheek-pouches of the animal, and stowed on 

 the outside of the bed-lining. This food consisted chiefly 

 of the leaves and hollow stems of a large composite plant, a 

 specimen of which is shown in Fig. 163. It was very abundant 

 at this time September) in all the hollows, but not immediately 



' Mam. Minn., Herrick, 1892, p. 229. 



