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eastern Kansas. Thence its range extends north through the valley 
of the Red River of the North and the Saskatchewan. It is also 
found in Indiana near the western boundary. 
The gray gopher bears a superficial resemblance to the gray 
squirrel, but the habits of the two are totally different. The tail of 
the gopher is short, and the hair is sparse and coarse, with no soft 
under-fur. 
The color of the young is as follows: Over the back the hairs 
are banded buff and black, the banding and arrangement giving 
the effect of light spots on a dark background; or the spots may 
be so large and so arranged as almost to form irregular transverse 
bars of light and dark. Over the head and neck many of the 
hairs are tipped with pure white, and the general effect is gray. 
Over the sides the general color is more rusty than on the back. 
The chin and throat are dirty white. On the belly and inside of 
the legs the color is dirty buff. The tip of the ear is black within. 
The inside of the ear and a strip around the eye are ochraceous. The 
whiskers are black; the claws, horn-color. The hairs of the tail 
have long, light tips, which are ochraceous at base and whitish 
mear-wp. In the older specimens the barring becomes more 
obscure, and the lighter colors become more rusty and more exten- 
sive. The last two-thirds of the tail is gray with a slight flush of 
ocher. 
The total length is about 15.16 in. (385 mm.), the tail is 5.12 in. 
(130 mm.) long, and the hind foot 2.13 in. (54 mm.). 
Early writers describe this gopher as inhabiting the edge of the 
woods or tracts dotted with low bushes, etc., rather than the open 
prairie. At present a necessary condition for their habitation seems 
to be the presence of some shelter, such as may be furnished by tall 
grass, or a field of clover, alfalfa, or grain. Others have noticed that 
when the crop on such a field is cut the gophers leave, at least for 
a while, and my own observations coincide with theirs, though I have 
known the gophers to return to the same spot after the second crop 
of alfalfa had started. They avoid closely cropped pastures, well- 
kept cemeteries, lawns, and similar places where the striped gopher 
is especially abundant, yet even in such localities I have found them 
congregated under a heap of compost. In fact such a shelter seems 
to have special attractions for them, as noted by Bailey. Kennicott 
says that they are less shy and less disturbed by cultivation of the 
