The Pocket Gopher. 115 



infestation is also shown to include that portion of the Arkan- 

 sas valley east of Great Bend, but here the plains species is 

 the more abundant. A personal survey of the valleys of the 

 Kansas, the Blue, the Kepublican, the Solomon, the Smoky Hill 

 and the lower Arkansas valley confirms the evidence of the 

 map to which I have referred. Southeastern Kansas seems to 

 be comparatively free from the pest, at least in numbers suffi- 

 cient to make it troublesome. In this region and along the 

 south-central border of the state the range of G. bursarius 

 probably meets that of the Louisiana pocket gopher, Geomys 

 breviceps. The evidence of this is shown by specimens from 

 the valley of the Ninnescah now in the zoological collection 

 at Washington having some characteristics of both species. 



HABITS. 



The pocket gopher is an excellent illustration of an animal 

 adapted to a particular environment. Built short and stocky, 

 like a Hungarian miner, it is able to excavate with ease and 

 dispatch the intricate system of long, branching, subterra- 

 nean galleries in which it spends practically its entire life. 

 Its shoulders are broad and its fore legs strong and sinewy, 

 ending in stout claws that can rapidly rake a passage through 

 a wall of earth. In mining operations the claws are assisted 

 by a pair of long and sharp incisor teeth curving from the 

 upper jaw. Its eyes are very small and their range of vision 

 quite limited, as has been proven by experiments with animals 

 kept in captivity. In fact the animal can have no possible use 

 for eyes except in the brief moments it spends at the exists of 

 its burrow when throwing out earth. As might be expected, a 

 study -of the animal's reactions to stimuli shows that its sense 

 of touch and of smell are exceptionally well developed. The 

 short, stubby tail, nearly devoid of hair, is particularly sen- 

 sitive to touch. 



The greater number of burrowing mammals, like the prairie- 

 dog, the spermophile and the woodchuck, spend most of the 

 daylight hours in fine weather above ground. The interesting 

 little kangaroo rats and their ilk come out at night to thread 

 their tiny pathways in the sand fields or report their errands 

 in delicate tracery on patches of snow. The pocket gopher, 

 on the other hand, cares neither for the enticing warmth of 

 sunshine nor the witchery of moonlight, but sticks to the dark- 



