50 
We dug out four other gophers and found there is no particular rule in 
the builder’s mind as to how far he will tunnel or in what direction. They 
go into the ground for protection, for comfort and for water. A popular 
error exists among the natives here that the gopher does not require water 
because he goes only in dry places and hides from the heavy dews, or 
even the lightest rains; but I find that he invariably stops his digging 
when he has reached a sand so moist that he can suck particles of mois- 
ture through the sieve-like serrations of his jaws, which, when closed 
make openings of one fiftieth of an inch. If particles of sand should enter 
they settle in the deep groove between the serrations of the lower jaw. 
If you dig a little hollow six inches beyond the lower end of a gopher run 
you find it soon filled with water oozing up from below. 
The gopher makes burrows for the purpose of regulating the tempera- 
ture to a degree most fitted to his comfort and well being. When he has 
browsed to his satisfaction and the sun is too hot, he retires to the shade 
of his cave. If his shell is uncomfortably dry he retires deeper, and if he 
is thirsty he drinks in the filtered water from his own well. I have taken 
a gopher out of the ground, stopped up the entrance to his burrow, except 
the first foot or two, and then watched his puzzled look as he endeavored 
to enter. He looked curiously about as if taking in certain land marks, 
then, having got his bearings in mind, would make another dash at the 
place where his entrance had formerly been. After a half-dozen trials he 
threw up his head in disgust and marched off. I have put one gopher in 
another’s hole, but it will back out and go away. 
At this time I have a gopher in a little chicken coop, which has the 
sand for its floor. He has been there a week but has made no effort to 
free himself by digging out. He has buried himself all but about an inch 
of the rear of his shell, and from there he makes no attempt to go deeper. 
I have never seen two gopher holes very close together; sometimes one 
burrow will cross another, but never into it; the nearest being about eigh- 
teen inches. 
The anatomical peculiarities of the gopher are the head, which, from 
the rear view, much resembles that of a frog, but is covered with a hard, 
black, adherent skin or scales; the jaw and tongue quite angular, looking 
into the mouth it seems a perfect triangle; the tongue has villi much like 
that of herbiverous animals; it has three well-defined stomachs. The in- 
testine from the third stomach is very large, with muscular arrangement 
that the herbage injested may be brought up at will, thus the animal is 
