Pocket-gopher 



573 



But In Colorado on the White River Plateau in September, 

 1901, I spent three days investigating the complicated home 

 of an allied species, T. fossor. The notes in my journal 

 run thus: 



Fig. 166 — Burrow of talpoides. Carberry, Man., May 27, 1884. 



Pagoda Peak, Colorado, September 9, 1901. In the after- 

 noon we dug out the labyrinth of a Pocket-gopher. The species 

 abounds in every part of the country we passed through. It 

 keeps the ground soft even at 10,000 feet elevation. 



The burrow was en a slope with an eastern exposure. We 

 dug out 125 feet of it, most being about 4 inches from the surface 

 in the friable soil, but near the nest it dipped down through hard- 

 pan vertically 24 inches from the surface, as shown in Fig. 167. 



The central chamber had a 3-inch lining of finely chewed den 

 grass; it was 12 inches long, 9 wide, 7 high, and perfectly clean. 



Special places, or pockets, were provided for the dung, dung 

 There were great quantities of this, fully three pints, some of 

 it being very old and mouldy. At only one place did we find 

 any of it in the main gallery. The form taken by the pellets 

 is, of course, regulated by the intestine, and shows the ailftnlties 

 of the animal. The dung of Rabbits is round, of Mice and 

 Squirrels double-conical or oval, that of the present species, 

 cylindrical. (See Plate of Scatology, facing page 654.) 



At several places were piles of earth pellets, a gill or so mvd 



r-w-^ ' • ' PELLETS 



in each. These were compact and rounded, of various sizes. 



