Alfalfa in Kansas. 359 



however, for a few sharp-eyed and vigilant foes habitually capture 

 numbers of gophers when they come to the mouths of, their burrows to 

 push out a load of earth. Hawks and owls take toll at these favorable 

 moments, and many a house cat has learned the trick of capturing a 

 meal then with little difficulty. 



The gopher's habit of confining active operations in mining mainly to the 

 hours of twilight particularly favors the owls and the cat. The great 

 horned owl, the long-eared owl, and the barn owl, particularly the last 

 named, render valuable service in. keeping down the numbers of these de- 

 structive rodents. A single pair of owls nesting on the farm has been 

 known to destroy scores of gophers in a brief season. Sometimes they 

 live on nothing else for a time, as evidenced by the pellets of bones and 

 fur which, like most birds of prey, they invariably disgorge after a meal. 



Instances of a house cat becoming addicted to the gopher habit are not 

 uncommon. In a number of cases that were reported directly to me, 

 mother cats brought in several gophers a day, regularly as clockwork, to 

 their families of kittens. In many instances of reported gopher catching, 

 however, the informant has had in mind the little striped "gopher," or 

 ground squirrel. 



Two enemies that in some localities are said to hold the pocket gopher 

 in check more than all others are the weasel and the bull snake. The 

 former is too scarce in most parts of Kansas to be worth considering in 

 this relation, but the bull snake is common enough on farms whose owners 

 or tenants have had the wisdom and forethought to protect the natural 

 enemies of the destructive rodent tribe. The snake would, of course, be 

 able to gain entrance to the gopher's burrow only when the latter was 

 temporarily left open, but once inside he would probably remain there 

 for some time and make things interesting for the occupants. When one 

 is trapping gophers he will occasionally surprise a bull snake in the act 

 of trying to swallow the captured animal, trap and all. I have also found 

 this snake in the burrow of the striped spermophile, helping himself to a 

 nestful of the young of the latter, and have seen him capture and kill the 

 adult spermophile at the mouth of its burrow. 



The little striped skunk (Spilogale interrupta) should not be left out 

 of account in discussing the natural enemies of the pocket gopher. I had 

 not supposed that these animals could make their way through the bur- 

 rows of the gopher, and had laid to the charge of weasels a number of 

 cases of killing and feeding on gophers imprisoned in steel traps. Finally 

 I resorted to setting traps a second time in the mouths of the burrows 

 where a gopher had been partly eaten, and in two instances succeeded in 

 capturing a little striped skunk. There was no question in either case 

 but that the skunk had entered the burrow at some point remote from 

 the location of the trap, for the opening through which the trap had been 

 introduced had been carefully covered with a board and loose earth; this 

 covering was undisturbed. In comparing this slender little skunk's body 

 with the diameter of many of the gopher burrows in alfalfa fields it will 

 be seen at once that it is not a difficult matter for the skunk to make his 

 way through the underground passages. The additional fact that, by 

 digging, he can enter the burrow at any point and corner the occupant in 



