166 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



Many years ago, while watching for a squirrel to come out of 

 a hole, we saw a mink come from a pile of driftwood on the 

 bank of a creek and hop along on the ice to where there was 

 some open water just above a riffle. The main part of the 

 creek was frozen over and covered with ice and snow. The 

 mink dove into the water and soon appeared with a small fish. 

 This was eaten; then the mink dove again and soon appeared 

 with another small fish. We wanted to shoot the mink, but 

 thought we would take our time and see how many fish it 

 would catch. We had a shotgun, and felt sure that we could 

 get a shot before the animal could get back to the driftwood. 

 The mink dove for the third time, and we never saw it again. 

 It must have had an underground passage to its den. 



This occurred during our boyhood days, and the disappoint- 

 ment of not getting the mink made us feel bad for a long time. 

 We watched the place, after the mink disappeared, for an hour 

 or more, and went back the next day and watched, but the 

 mink never came back, at least while we were watching. 



The Gopher. 



Gophers burrow in the banks and have at times bothered a 

 good deal on the Hatchery grounds. We have learned that no 

 embankment should be built on ground that has gopher* holes 

 in it. The ground should be plowed and scraped deep enough 

 under the foundation of the embankments to destroy all gopher 

 holes; otherwise there will be serious trouble when the water 

 is turned into the pond. Water will run through gopher holes 

 just about as freely as through iron pipes or tiling, and it is 

 no easy matter to stop such leaks. It frequently necessitates 

 draining the pond and doing a lot of work digging up the old 

 gopher burrows. 



Gophers may be trapped or poisoned. There are a number of 

 different kinds of traps sold in the market. Small potatoes, or, 

 better, sweet potatoes, or, better yet, raisins, can be poisoned 

 and used with good effect in killing gophers. Find the gopher 

 burrow by punching holes in the ground with a hard stick or 

 with an iron rod. The rod should be about an inch in diameter, 

 so as to make a hole large enough to admit the bait. If the 

 poisoned potatoes are too large to be dropped into the gopher's 

 burrow, they can be cut into pieces of sufficient size to be ad- 

 mitted. Such poison as "Rough on Rats," arsenic, strychnine, 

 or the poison prepared at the Kansas State Agricultural Col- 

 lege, can be used. If there are only a few gophers in the 

 locality they may be trapped ; but if there are very many, 

 poisoning is by far the quickest and easiest method of getting 

 rid of them. 



*Gophers sometimes cut through the banks after they are built and 

 before the water is turned in. It would be a good plan to kill the gophers 

 on a piece of ground before the ponds are built. 



