ALONG FOUR-FOOTED TRAILS 



as a store-room in which to place food for use 

 when the ground was frozen in winter, or for 

 an emergency when he might not be fortunate 

 in his daily search for food. One of his worst 

 failings was his gluttonous disposition. On dis- 

 covering a rare delicacy according to the go- 

 pher's cultivated taste, he would sit and eat and 

 eat until his sides fairly stuck out and his 

 stomach could not contain another mouthful. 

 He would then work the remainder of the 

 night cutting the tender shoots, roots, or tu- 

 bers, whichever it chanced to be, into short pieces 

 about an inch in length. In the most serious, 

 business-like manner, he would sit up with his 

 fore-paws and using first one and then the 

 other he would place the pieces cut by his 

 broad, long and sharp front teeth into the pock- 

 ets on either side of his head. It was from these 

 fur-lined pockets, or pouches, that the queer, 

 solitary little animals derived their name. If he 

 found a particularly choice bit of food, he would 

 fill his pockets as full as he could stuff them, 

 thus distorting the shape of his head, and 

 causing him to look very queerly as he scam- 

 pered along in the moonlight to his burrow, to 



[206] 



