BURROWING SQUIRRELS 195 



Ground Squirrels 



We have now reached a large group of burrowing squirrels 

 which to the farmers west of the Mississippi are of very seri- 

 ous importance, on account of the grain they destroy. All 

 these animals may be known under the name of Sper'mo- 

 philes. The word Spermophile means "seed-lover"; and as 

 this very appropriate general term implies, the animals which 

 bear it feed chiefly upon seeds or grain. 



No ground squirrel, or spermophile, ever should be called 

 a "gopher," as is frequently done in the Dakotas and Minne- 

 sota. The latter name should be reserved for the clumsy, 

 burrowing pocket gophers, of the genera Geomys and Thomo- 

 mys. 



Ground squirrels live by preference onprairies, and burrow 

 deeply in the ground. They seldom frequent rocks, and 

 seldom climb trees. They are essentially dwellers in open 

 country, where they can range freely, and behold a go» aly 

 portion of the world about them. Even fields of standing 

 grain are distasteful to them, and they move to the open 

 country around their borders. 



Of spermophiles north of Mexico there are thirty-one full 

 species and forty-two subspecies, or races. Going westward, 

 they are first found in western Indiana and Michigan, from 

 which they spread northwest and southwest, throughout the 

 whole western half of the United Slates, save the limbered 

 areas. They also range inl<> Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. 

 They are al home on the rich, rolling prairies of the Dakotas, 

 the level, floor-like plains of Nebraska, the alkali flats of 



