526 
shadow, and jump suddenly sidewise, backward, or forwards, as the 
case may seem to require, from the slightest rustling near them. 
Of course in reality these actions are for the most part unconscious 
reactions, their existence requiring, after all, no more watchfulness 
and dodging than a man must exercise or do in the crowded streets 
of a great city. 
The curiosity of the animal is quite as characteristic as its 
timidity. Sitting bolt upright at the mouth of its burrow, it will 
watch an intruder till some noise or motion sets off its unstable re- 
flexes, when it dives into its hole with what seems a half shriek, half 
chatter of terror. But in a moment it emerges to investigate, and 
perhaps to repeat the performance. Boys take advantage of this 
habit of the striped gopher to catch it with a slip-noose. The noose 
is laid over the mouth of the burrow into which a gopher has just 
been driven, and with the cord bearing the slip-knot in his hand the 
boy lies down a few feet away, usually not having to wait long be- 
fore the gopher puts its head through the noose and is caught. 
The young are born about the first of June. The period of gesta- 
tion is about one month. Lee found the number of embryos in 
129 pregnant females varying from.5 to 13, the average being 8.5. 
The number in a single horn of the uterus varied from 0 to 9. The 
young are born in an undeveloped condition, and are hairless for 
about three weeks. 
In spite of the remarkable fertility of this species, it does not 
increase to any great extent in this locality. Its enemies are many. 
Probably in this county the most important ones are the hawks. 
Skunks and weasels also kill them, and the fox undoubtedly takes 
them when nothing more acceptable offers. 
I have never been able to detect a striped gopher abroad during 
the night, though I have spent many hours watching for them. A 
specimen kept in captivity in a living room could be heard at night 
stirring in its cage and eating. It may perhaps take a lunch at 
night in its hole, but I think it does not come out during the middle 
of the night. 
The species is undoubtedly quite dormant during the winter. 
A specimen kept in a cage in a rather overheated room all winter 
remained in a sleepy, stupid condition from about the first of Novem- 
ber till the last of February. Apparently it partook of food spar- 
ingly—only two or three times during that period. For a month 
