258 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No, 55 



intervals of 3 feet to 1 rod apart along the line of each tunnel. The 

 tunnels are constantly extended and gradually fill up as they are 

 abandoned and the old nests, food refuse, and excrement are buried 

 well below the surface, while the mounds are constantly burying the 

 surface vegetation deeper and deeper underground. The soil is kept 

 mellow and porous, and a great part of the rainfall is held in the 

 ground instead of running quickly from the surface in destructive 

 floods. The meadows are enriched, the forests are benefited, and 

 soil erosion, the menace of the mountain ranges, is largely checked. 

 To be sure, many plants are eaten that would make forage for sheep, 

 but every bit of vegetation taken is eventually returned to the soil 

 in such a manner that fire cannot reach it and some of the disastrous 

 effects of overburning and overgrazing of the mountain parks is 

 thus prevented. In very few places does this species range down 

 into valleys to the level of any agriculture. 



One day in camp the cook, armed with a few traps, caught 20 of 

 these little animals near the tent and dressed and cooked 16 of them 

 for a supper for five. They made a good meal and were enjoyed by 

 all, the meat being somewhat like squirrel, but more tender and 

 rather better flavored. Broiled on the coals they are especially good, 

 and they provide an always available source of meat supply in the 

 mountains when game is out of season. 



THOMOMYS MONTICOLA HELLERI ELLIOT 

 HELUSR'S POCKET GOPHER 



Thomotnys helleri Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser. 3 : 165, 1903. 



Type. Collected at Gold Beach, mouth of Rogue River, Oreg., by Edmund 

 Heller, in 1901. 



General characters. About the size and general appearance of T. mazama, 

 but darker and richer in coloration, and with slenderer skull ; upper parts dull 

 chestnut or mars brown ; sides and under parts becoming ochraceous ; ear 

 patches intense black ; nose and face blackish, rarely a trace of white on lips ; 

 tip of tail usually white. 



Measurements. Average of typical males: Total length, 203 mm; tail, 55; 

 foot, 29; ear (dry), 6. Females: 195; 57; 27; 6. 



Distribution and habitat. This very dark and richly colored form 

 of the monticola-mazama group is common on both sides of the 

 mouth of the Kogue Kiver, at Gold Beach and Wedderburn, and 

 their hills were seen back a couple of miles from the coast along the 

 river bottoms (fig. 58). One set of pocket-gopher hills was also found 

 on the open ridges north of the river, about 20 miles inland. 

 Other hills at Port Orf ord and Pistol River, and several places south 

 of the Rogue River near the coast, may also be made by this species. 

 They occupy the sandy bottoms and grassy ridge tops only in the 

 openings, which are scarce and isolated along this coast section. 



General habits. The pocket-gopher burrows are but lightly closed 

 and easily dug open with one's fingers, or a small stick. With only 

 2 gopher traps 8 gophers were caught in 1 day by going around fre- 

 quently to examine the traps. The animals were active all day and 

 soon came to close the openings of their burrows and were caught. 

 Some had a little wild mustard, grass, and other plants stuffed in 

 their pockets, showing that they had been feeding during the day. 



