JlXE 21, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



(389 



done his work with much painstaking care, 

 and that both the theoretical and the prac- 

 tical part are set forth in a manner whicli 

 cannot fail to give students an excellent 

 foundation in the science of the elasticity 

 and strength of materials. 



Maxsfield Merriman. 

 Lehioh Uxiver.sity. 



The Pocket Gophers of the United States. Bul- 

 letin No. 5, V. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Division of Ornithology and ilani- 

 malogy. Prepared under the direction of 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of division, 

 by Yerxox Bailey, Chief Field Agent, 

 Central Park, Xew York. Published by 

 authoritj' of the Secretarj' of Agriculture. 

 Washington, Government Printing Office. 

 1895. Svo.,pp. 47. Frontispiece, 6 cuts 

 in the text, and colored map. 

 In a former number of Science (X. S. 

 Yol. I., No. 9, March 1, 1895) attention 

 was called to a monograph by Dr. Merriam 

 on the Pocket Gophers (family Geomyida'). 

 in which was presented the scientific re- 

 sults of his extended and detailed studies 

 of the group. The present ' Bulletin ' is a 

 fitting sequel to the technical monograph 

 already noticed, dealing, as it does, with the 

 economic relations to agi-iculture of these 

 destructive rodents. This paper was pre- 

 pared bj' 5Ir. Yernon Bailey, under the 

 direction of Dr. Merriam, Chief of the Di- 

 vision of Ornithology and Mammalogy of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture. ^Ir. 

 Bailey is one of the most experienced and 

 expert of the many expert field naturalists 

 now connected with this branch of govern- 

 ment service, and is therefore eminently fit- 

 ted by personal experience in the field for 

 the preparation of a report like the one 

 under notice. 



The first ten pages relate to the general 

 habits of these animals, which live almost 

 wholly under ground, and make knowH their 

 presence chieflj' by the mounds of eartli 



thrown out from their burrows, or by their 

 troublesome depredations upon farm and 

 garden products, Kven where so numerous 

 as to be exceedingly troublesome they are 

 rarely seen, and little is known of their life 

 habits by even the people who sutler fi-om 

 their depredations. Hence the detailed 

 account of their habits and methods of 

 working here given is a welcome contribu- 

 tion toward a fuller knowledge of their life 

 histories. Although deficient in vision, 

 their senses of taste, touch and smell seem 

 to be compensatinglj' acute, and their ample 

 external cheek-pouches serve an important 

 function in the transportation of food, for 

 which they seem exclusively used. The 

 Gophers, says Mr. Bailej', " are industrious 

 workers, and whatever food is found and 

 not needed at once is carried to chambers 

 in some part of the tunnel and stored. * * * 

 Sometimes a peck of small potatoes, roots 

 of coco grass, wild pai-snip, wild sunflower 

 and other fleshy or Ijull^ous roots are found 

 in a single chamber." They are especially 

 fond of potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, 

 onions, parsnips, corn, liarley, rye and 

 alfalfa, and even squashes and melons do not 

 escape their ravages. They are also very 

 destructive to fruit and ornamental trees by 

 eating oft' their roots, which are sometimes 

 so thoroughly cut away that the trees fall 

 from lack of support. Their burrows are 

 also often a source of injury over compara- 

 tively large areas, through the large amount 

 of earth tiirown up as mounds, thus burying 

 crops, and sometimes they cause breaks in 

 irrigating ditches and induce serious wash- 

 ing of hillside lands. 



The Gophers have few natural enemies, 

 and seem to flourish and increase through 

 the fruits of man's industry. Hence the 

 ([uestion of artificial means of destruction 

 becomes a niatter for careful consideration. 

 Thej- can be traj)ped readily by those who 

 know how to do it, l)ut generally the art is 

 unknown, and it i.-^ a widespread belief 



