260 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



Food habits. In places they feed extensively on. the great tuber- 

 ous roots of Balsamorhiza, the broad-leaved compass plant of the 

 mountains, and some of those caught have a strong odor of wild 

 onions. A great variety of green plants also are eaten, and any 

 grains and many other crops where raised on gopher-infested ground. 



Economic status. In unsettled country these little pocket gophers 

 may be considered beneficial rather than injurious, but in fields and 

 gardens, and especially in orchards and yards, where flowers and 

 shrubbery are grown, they should be destroyed. 



THOMOMYS QUADRATUS QUADRATUS MEERIAM 

 DALLES POCKET GOPHER; YA-ZE-BA of the Piute 



Thomomys quadratus Merriam, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 11: 214, 1897. 



Type. Collected at The Dalles, Oreg., by Clark P. Streator, November 2, 

 1893. 



General characters. Size medium, about as in mazama; ears small; skull 

 relatively short and wide, with posterior tip of nasals truncate; mammae 

 normally in five pairs. Upper parts light russet brown; ear patches black; 

 nose dark plumbeous ; lower parts dark buff ; tail brownish except at tip ; feet 

 whitish. 



Measurements. Average of typical adult males : Total length, 210 mm ; tail, 

 64; foot, 27; ear (dry), 5. Females: 195; 62; 26; 5. 



Distribution and habitat. These light-brown pocket gophers are 

 more or less common over most of the sagebrush plains of eastern 

 Oregon, and extend slightly into northwestern Nevada, northeastern 

 California, and into southern Washington, mainly in Upper Sonoran 

 Zone (fig. 57). They are most abundant along streams or in valley 

 bottoms, where there is some moisture and green vegetation, and 

 are absent from wide stretches of arid or barren uplands. In the 

 Steens Mountains and some other desert ranges they reach high into 

 the Transition Zone without sufficient variation for subspecific sepa- 

 ration. 



General habits. In habits these pocket gophers do not differ much 

 from fuscus except in their adaptation to more open and arid coun- 

 try, where they burrow, often in great numbers, along the more 

 fertile stream valleys and in the native meadows. As these are the 

 choice lands for agriculture, the gophers are now mostly occupying 

 fields, pastures, or meadows on farm or ranch lands. On the stock 

 ranches they generally do as much good as harm, but in fields, 

 gardens, and orchards they have to be destroyed to prevent loss of 

 crops. 



THOMOMYS COLUMBIANUS BAILEY 



COLUMBIA POCKET GOPHER 



Thomomys fuscus columbmnus Bailey, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 27: 117, 1914. 



Type. Collected at Touchet, Walla Walla County, Wash., by Clark P. 

 Streator, September 10, 1890. 



General characters. Slightly larger than quadratus; skull heavier; mammae 

 normally in six pairs ; colors pale, upper parts light wood-brown or buffy gray ; 

 ear and postocular patch blackish; nose slaty gray; tail gray with white tip; 

 feet whitish. 



Measurements. Type, adult male : Total length, 209 mm ; tail, 60 ; foot, 28 ; 

 ear (dry), 5. Female topotype: 208; 68; 27. 



