572 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



P. Streator/ Is almost exclusively Pocket-gophers the whole 

 year round. As the barn owl is strictly nocturnal in its feeding 

 habits, this is a good evidence that the Californian Gopher also 

 is a nocturnal species. 



There is one time when the Gopher is very apt to become 

 the prey of day-feeders. And that is at noon, when, as later 

 described, the digger opens its burrow to let in the sun, and 

 may thus be surprised by a watchful foe. 



EiNEMiEs Obviously the chief enemies of the Pocket-gopher are 



owls; but we must add to these hawks. Badgers, Weasels, 

 Coyotes, Foxes, and, in some regions, snakes, which enter the 

 tunnels if they chance to find them open. The care with 

 which the Gopher will plug the burrow as often as one exposes 

 an entrance is probably an instinctive precaution against such 

 marauders. If the burrow be persistently opened for two or 

 three days the Gopher abandons it. 



I have seen patches of 50 to 100 square yards on the damp 

 creek bottom that had plenty of old, but no recent, signs of 

 Gopher-work. These I could not account for, unless it was 

 that Weasels had killed off their mining population. 



PARA. In Manitoba and New Mexico I have several times found 



Gophers with an interesting kind of companion or semi- 

 parasite. Amphibians of the genus Ambystoma commonly 

 take refuge for the winter in the Gopher tunnels. 



The common toad, also, will avail himself of the easy 

 digging furnished by the new Gopher mound, when the time 

 comes to bury himself for the season. 



?H^:. Tht burrows of this famous burrower are of two kinds, 



forage and residential. I have never investigated fully one of 

 the latter made by the Manitoba species, but have opened 

 many of its forage burrows. These are usually 2 to 3 inches 

 in diameter and 4 to 8 inches from the surface. Figs. 165 

 and 166 show typical examples. 



Ihid., p. 134. 



ROWS 



