576 



Life-histories of Northern Animals 



SHAFTS 



There is yet one other type of burrow that I attribute to 

 talpoides. The only one of these which I investigated was 

 while digging a well on the Big Plain in Manitoba in 1882. 

 It went down spirally 15 feet, then it left the line of the well. 

 Old residents told me that such were commonly found, and 

 were understood to be made by the Pocket-gopher seeking 



water. I did not see the animal that 

 made it and do not believe that Gophers 

 seek water, but the tunnel was of the 

 same size as those made by talpoides, 

 and the only other possible makers were 

 the Spermophiles {richardsoni and tre- 

 decemlineatus). 



Whatever the explanation of the 

 deep shafts, they are not as important 

 as the ordinary tunnels. These are 4 to 

 10 inches down and about 3 inches 

 wide, as illustrated in the sections made 

 in Manitoba, 1882. (See Fig. 168) 

 These tunnels are connected by fre- 

 quent side galleries with the surface, 

 and although along the cut banks of the 

 creeks in California I saw a great many holes, apparently made 

 by these rodents, down 3 or 4 feet, we must believe that the 

 special realm of the Pocket-gopher's activity is — like the 

 farmer's fortune — in the soil within a foot of the surface. 



Fig. 168 — Prairie sections made at 

 Carberry, Man., in 1882, to illus- 

 trate the number of Gopher bur- 

 rows near the surface. Most of 

 these were plugged with lighter 

 coloured subsoil. 



INDUS- 

 TRY 



The Gray Pocket-gophers work not only morning, even- 

 ing and night; they are active during a larger part of the year 

 than most burrowing rodents. Of course that activity is 

 varied with the season. I have many observations to show 

 that talpoides is most energetic in the spring-time. J. B. Gofif 

 assures me that this is true also of the Colorado species. 

 Through the summer the Gophers continue their work with 

 little relaxation in the hottest weather, and in Manitoba 

 talpoides works away, pushing its great black mounds through 

 the snow long after the frost of winter has stopped the plough. 



