120 The Pocket Gopher. 



this time they have excavated burrows of their own and laid 

 up some stores for the winter. 



NATURAL FOOD. 



The natural food of the pocket gopher consists of the fleshy 

 roots and underground stems of various plants growing wild 

 on the prairies. To this bill of fare he adds occasionally a 

 small quantity of succulent vegetation drawn down into his 

 burrow from the surface at points where exits are dug for re- 

 moving earth. When foraging thus above ground he loses no 

 time in cramming supplies into his cheek pockets and hurry- 

 ing below to eat the stuff at his leisure. The underground 

 stems and roots he encounters in extending his burrows are cut 

 into short pieces of convenient length to carry, provided he 

 does not care to dine upon the spot. The sections thus made 

 are commonly an inch or two in length, sometimes shorter, 

 but I have found stores of alfalfa roots in which dozens of the 

 pieces ranged from four to eight inches long. These, of course, 

 the animal must carry or drag to the storeroom without the 

 aid of his pockets. The same is necessarily true of the large 

 cultivated tubers he often steals from the fields or bins of the 

 unlucky farmer. Observations on the habits of a pocket go- 

 pher kept in. captivity by Doctor Merriam, of Washington, 

 D. C., seemed to indicate that the animal when thus storing 

 his larder can travel as easily and as readily backward as for- 

 ward. The writer states that the gopher moved back and 

 forth from food supply to storeroom like a shuttle on its track, 

 rarely turning around after securing a load. In its backward 

 progression the sensitive tail served as an organ of touch. 



The underground chamber excavated for the purpose of 

 storing food varies in size according to the supplies in sight 

 and the demands of the season. Sometimes one will find only a 

 handful of roots; in other places a peck or more is packed 

 away. Indeed, when an over-industrious gopher finds his way 

 into a pit stored with potatoes or apples he will sometimes 

 carry away and store several bushels of them. A mound of 

 unusually large size is pretty good evidence of the presence of 

 food stores near by, especially if located in the immediate 

 vicinity of a source of plentiful supplies. In some cases a part 

 of the dirt excavated, however, is used to pack the food sup- 

 plies. I have uncovered stores in which each separate piece of 

 root was carefully separated from the others by fine dirt, much 



