CHAPTER VII 

 THE GRAY GOPHERS 



THIS brings us to another group of burrow- 

 ing and pouched rodents, which, however, are 

 far from harmless the gophers. This term is 

 given in the Gulf States to a burrowing turtle, 

 and in the Northwest to a striped ground- 

 squirrel, but those here in view are the chunked, 

 short-legged, blunt-nosed, short-tailed ground- 

 diggers of the family Geomyidcc. 



They inhabit nearly the whole of the open 

 country west of the Mississippi river not lifted 

 into mountain ranges, and one species, locally 

 called salamander (Geomys tuza), occupies 

 large areas in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. 

 The western plains are the home of two promi- 

 nent species, the dark "common" one (Geomys 

 bursarius), formerly spread as far east of the 

 Mississippi as the prairies extended and now 

 dwelling between that river and the Rocky 

 Mountains from near the Canadian line to the 



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