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ORT OF THE ORNITHOLOGIST 
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\ > found th : 
ay. =) Rout at at each place they had dug up from three to a dozen kernels of barley 
that had been buried 1 or 2 inches under ground. Most of it had just sprouted, 
_ but thatin the field was up 5 or 6 inches high, and there was no meat in the hull. | 
_ Their cry is a rattling chipper on a high key, much like that of the Striped Gopher __ 
_ (8. tridecemiineatus), and I have sometimes. been unable to tell them apart. 
_ Usually they run low, and go scudding through the grass, but if badly frightened 
an _ take long, high leaps, exactly like a Gray Squirrel. They seem to like to make 
_ their burrows near or under old buildings that are not inhabited, and often live 
under barns that are in use. Brown’s Valley, Traverse County, June and July, 
1887 : Occasionally found on the prairie, and very numerous all over the valley, 
: af even intown. Their food on the prairie seems to consist largely of seeds of Stipa 
spartea and cockle-bur. Wherever the cockle-bur grows the ground is covered 
_ with shells of the burs that have liad the seeds eaten out. Many of the Gray Gophers 
_ live among piles of manure which have been hauled out of town and dumped on 
the common. They dig in the manure and probably find grain. I have been 
_ told that one killed 5 chickens that were feathered out and probably as large as 
quail. The woman who told me saw the Gopher kill one of them. I have seen 
one within 15 feet of an open door, and it did not seem at allafraid. Many live 
under houses. I saw the first young one out of the hole June 30, and some more - 
July 6. They were about half grown. 
Dakota.—Pembina, July and August, 1887: Common in brush, prairie meadows, 
and fields. Caught one on the prairie and found in its stomach much wheat, some 
grasshoppers, and the remains of several young mice (Hesperomys michiganensis). 
Fort Sisseton, June, 1887: Common. Harwood, Cass County, July 1887: Common; 
_notnumerous. Grand Forks, July, 1887: Scarce. They bend the grain over, instead 
- of biting it off like the Striped Gopher. Flandreau, Moody County, May, 1887: Scarce. 
Devil's Lake, Ramsey County, August, 1887: Common; seems to prefer woods or 
low marshy and weedy land. Bottineau (on western border of Turtle Mountain), 
August, i887: Evidently scarce; saw none alive, bnt found one that a hawk had 
partly eaten. 
RICHARDSON’S GOPHER (Spermophilus richardson). 
Dakota.—Devil’s Lake, Ramsey County, August, 1887: Tolerably common. Found 
on the high prairie, generally along the edge of grain-fields. Killed one as it ran 
from under a shock of oats. Its pouches were stuffed full of oats, 269 kernels in 
all. Bottineau, August, 1887: More numerous than any other Gopher, averaging 
-about 1 Gopher to every 2 acres of prairie. They feed on grain in the fields, and 
largely on seeds of pigweed (Chenopodium album and boscianum), both kinds of 
which are abundant. They do not seem to be collected around fields more than on 
the open prairie. Have never found them in the brush or on low or weedy ground. 
From sunrise to 9 o’clock in the morning they may be seen running or sitting up all 
over the prairie, even in the edge of town. After 9a. m. they retire to their bur- 
rows and are seldom seen. They are the least suspicious and have the most curi- 
osity of any of the Spermophiles known tome. When they run, their tails flap 
up and down like a Woodchuck’s, and when sitting up they shake their tails every 
_ few seconds. Their holes are large, with a pile of earth like a Pocket Gopher’s hill at 
the entrance. Of 13 specimens killed here, but 1 was a female. Much of their 
excrement is scattered about near and in the entrance of most of their burrows, 
which is something I have never seen near the holes of other Spermophiles. Rugby 
Junction, 1887: Numerous. ‘ 
PRAIRIE DoG (Cynomys ludovicianzs). 
. Montana.—Tilyou’s Ranch, Dawson County, September and October, 1887: Hight 
miles from here there is a colony of about 6, and 5 miles down the river there 
is another colony of 100 or less. They feed on grass and many kinds of weeds. 
_ I visited a Prairie Dog colony on the east side of the Yellowstone River, 2i miiles © 
from Fort Buford. The colony occupiesa level prairie about 1 square mile in ex- | 
tent, and just above flood level. There are probably 2,000 holes, and not 100 dogs. 
But few of the holes are used, and some are closed up. I think they do not live ina 
hole longer than one year. In most cases the dirt is thrown out of the holes all 
around, instead of in a pile on one side. It then forms a cone like a voleano around 
the opening, the rim varying in height from 10 inches to less. The quantity of dirt 
. thrown ont varies much: at some places I estimated that there was 2 cubic yards 
_ Of it: at other holes there was none. The earth is very hard at the edges of some 
holes, evidently having been packed while wet, and forms a sharp ring around the 
