The Pocket Gopher. 121 



as the farmers sometimes pack sweet potatoes in sand when 

 storing them for winter. 



The popular idea that the gopher uses his cheek pockets for 

 carrying out the earth from his burrow is certainly erroneous. 

 I have watched many gophers at work, and noted that the pro- 

 cess of removing the earth is always the same: the dirt is 

 pushed ahead of the animal in armfuls. Examination of the 

 pockets of gophers shot in the act of removing earth, or 

 trapped at any time, reveals no traces of contained earth. At 

 this point it might be well to state also that no part of a go- 

 pher's runway necessarily extends down to a supply of water, 

 as currently supposed. Like many other animals that feed 

 upon more or less succulent vegetation, sufficient water for the 

 tissues of the body is obtained in the food. 



ACTIVE SEASON. 



The pocket gopher seems to be busy at any season of the 

 year when the ground is not frozen too hard and too deep for 

 mining operations. Not uncommonly we see mounds of fresh 

 earth thrown up from beneath the snows of midwinter. It is 

 unlikely therefore that, strictly speaking, the animal ever 

 hibernates in this part of the country. During the briefer 

 periods of particularly inclement weather in the winter no 

 mounds are thrown up, and if the animal burrows lower then 

 to escape the frost, as some have observed, he must dispose of 

 the earth in tunnels or pockets previously excavated. It is my 

 belief, however, that the gopher spends these stormy periods 

 near the supplies of stored food. Evidence of this habit is 

 given by certain mounds thrown up in the spring that are made 

 up almost wholly of crumbling pellets of excrement and frag- 

 ments of nest material. October and November is a season of 

 particular activity. Impelled by the instinct that exacts obedi- 

 ence without forecasting the winter, the gophers then extend 

 their runways in all directions in search of food for their 

 underground cellars. At this time of year the best results can 

 usually be obtained in poisoning or trapping the animals. In 

 the spring, again, after the frost has left the ground, this ac- 

 tivity is renewed for a time ; but when the season for breeding 

 and rearing the young comes on, extension of the burrows re- 

 ceives less attention. 



It has been said that the gopher is a solitary animal; that no 

 two individuals ever occupy the same burrow except in the 



