354 



Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



females. Gophers have large external cheek pockets, which are entirely 

 outside of the mouth. The shoulders and fore legs are extremely stout 

 and full of strength. The lengthy, strong claws on the fore feet, to- 

 gether with the pair of long, 

 sharp incisor teeth, outfit 

 the gopher as one of the 



most efficient of the bur - 

 rowers, especially among 



root entanglements. The 

 eyes are diminutive, and the 

 range of vision perhaps 

 very much limited. 



The following account of 

 the gopher is taken from T. 

 H. Scheffer's excellent bul- 

 letin (No. 172, Kansas Ex- 

 periment Station) : 



The greater number of 

 burrowing mammals, like 

 the prairie dog, the spermo- 

 phile and the woodchuck, 

 spend most of the daylight 

 hours in fine weather above 

 ground. The pocket gopher 

 sticks to the darkness of his 

 tunnels. In watching go- 

 phers push out the earth 

 when extending their bur- 

 rows I have never seen one 



FIG. 302. Head of prairie pocket gopher, showing ex P OPe more of th body 



entrance to cheek pockets and grooved upper incisors, than the head, and usually 



[Courtesy Kansas Experiment Station.] , , ,. ., 



one can catch a glimpse of 

 the nose only, as with a 



quick upward flirt of this member the animal flings the dirt from the exit. 

 As the earth is sometimes* pushed to a considerable distance from the tem- 

 porary opening it is likely that the gopher must of necessity emerge 

 entirely from his burrow at times. 

 This he no doubt does under cover of 

 darkness, for it is a matter of common 

 observation that after a busy hour or 

 so in the early morning very little dirt 

 flies until near sunset, except perhaps 

 on dark, cloudy days. No evidence of 

 tracks or traces of foraging indicates 

 that the animal ordinarily ventures 

 farther than its mound of earth, however, even in the night. At certain 

 seasons, though, particularly when many of the young generation of that 

 year are setting up in business for themselves, the natural instinct of all 

 animals to extend the limits of their range impels the gopher to roam 



FIG. 303. Front foot of prairie gopher. 

 [Courtesy Kansas Experiment Station.] 



