MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA 



225 



Geomys breviceps BAIRD, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1855; Mammals 



N. A., 1857. 

 GERRARD, Cat. Bones Brit. Mus., 1862. 



Fig. 15. 



The external appearance of the gopher is not unlike that of 

 a rat but much more "squat" and compact. The head is broad 

 and flat. The strong fore limbs and the huge claws are a 

 prominent feature. The teeth are also large and very con- 

 spicuous by the slight development of the lips and cheeks. 

 The posterior part of the body is produced into a truncate 

 cone supported by the elongated pelvis bones. This trunca 

 tion is quite conspicuous in so much that the tail seems to 

 spring from a special square-topped prominence. The tail 

 itself is comparatively short and is sparsely hairy or quite 

 naked at the tip. The skin of the tail is not scaly, as in Mur- 

 idce, but delicate and pink- tinted. The attitude when alarmed, 

 especially when forced into strong light is faithfully repro- 

 duced in our drawingf and other characteristic attitudes are 

 copied in the outline vignettes accompanying. 



The size* varies greatly in a given locality but there is little 

 geographical variation, and as an illustration the measure- 

 ments of two females are given, the one being from Minneap- 

 olis near the eastern part of the state and one from Brown's 

 Valley in the extreme western part. 



tThe author refers to a plate which was omitted. 



*The following table of measurements refers to specimens collected by 

 Dr. C. E. McChesney, near Ft. Sisseton, Dak., and measured in the flesh. 

 The table is extracted from the complete table published by Coues (p. 614 

 of his monograph of Geomyidae)as bearing on the question of variation in 

 size in one locality and that near our own station. 



