230 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 534 



SCIENCE: 



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OBSERVATIONS ON GOPHERS AND MOLES IN OREGON. 



BY P. L. WASHBURN, STATE EXPERIMENT STATION, CORVALLIS, 

 OREGON. 



The Zoological Department of the Oregon State Experiment 

 Station has endeavored for two years to find some remedy for the 

 pocket gopher and common mole found in this section. The first 

 named, Thomomys bulbivorus, is a bad pest, and the decree has 

 gone forth that our mole, Scapanus townsendii, is to be placed in 

 the same category. Various traps purporting to catch gophers 

 and moles are on the market, but few of them are reliable. Two, 

 however, have been found to do very effective work in the case 

 of both animals. Of poisons, powdered strychnine, introduced 

 into pieces of potato an inch square and thrust down the burrows, 

 has proved efficacious in the case of gophers in the absence of 

 succulent root-crops. And small pieces of beef, poisoned with 

 the same agent, have been placed in moles' burrows with occa- 

 sionally good results, though nothing conclusive can be claimed 

 for that now. 



It is, however, of a few habits of the gopher, and more particu- 

 larly of some interesting discoveries regarding the diet of the 

 mole that we would here treat. 



The pocket gopher has not a little intelligence. The horticul- 

 turist of this station reports finding a nest stored with potatoes, 

 the tubers lying in layers, and each layer separated from the ad- 

 joining layers by more or less dried grass. The entrance to this 

 nest, or at least one entrance, was from below, affording a per- 

 fect system of drainage quite desirable in this country of wet 

 winters. 



Again, it is a matter of frequent occurrence to see gopher 

 mounds arranged in a straight line from that side of a field or 

 garden upon which the gopher enters to some fruit-tree or potato, 

 parsnip, or carrot patch, indicating that his main burrow beneath 

 the surface has been pushed directly to these sources of food-sup- 

 ply. This main burrow, by the way, is from twelve to twenty 

 inches below the surface,, and has leading from it, at intervals, 

 short branch burrows, which open on the surface of the gi-ound 

 and afford a means of getting rid of the soil excavated below. 

 These branches are generally plugged with soil and their openings 

 covered by a mound. The last one made, however, is often open, 

 and the occupant of this underground retreat can frequently be 

 seen protruding his head and disposing of the soil he has brought 

 from the main burrow. As to the method of bringing out this 

 soil opinions differ, some observers claiming that it is carried in 

 the pockets, to some extent at least, and then thrown out of the 

 pockets by movements of the fore feet. Others deny this, assert- 

 ing that the dirt is pushed before the animal and that the pockets 

 are not used in this work. The writer has frequently secured 

 specimens with forage in these pouches, but has never found 

 them to contain earth, even in specimens killed in the act of ex- 

 cavating. 



This rodent works during the night and is quite likely to be 

 found digging early in the morning, again about noon, and again 

 late in the afternoon. It is claimed that both the gopher and 

 mole are more active, as regards digging, just before rain. 



The nest of the pocket gopher is often found filled with camass 

 bulbs, of which this animal is very fond, as much as a bushel of 

 bulbs being reported as found in a single nest. When in the 

 vicinity of gardens, however, more palatable food is found with 

 which to store the larder. 



The tender roots of young fruit-trees are, unfortunately, very 

 tempting to these animals, and a dj"ing cherry or apple can fre- 

 quently be easily lifted from the ground, the root, gnawed com- 

 pletely through, showing the cause of its demise. 



This leads to the subject of the mole's diet. Many, or most, 

 of our scientists have united in defending the mole against 

 charges of eating bulbs and other vegetable matter, and have 

 stoutly asserted that the gnawed carrot, or parsnip, or crocus 

 bulb, found in the course of the mole's burrow, was the work of 

 one of the meadow mice. This is doubtless true. But that the 

 mole occasionally, or possibly frequently, resorts to a vegetable 

 diet must be acknowledged. A lady in Portland, Ore., quite sure 

 that moles were eating her crocus bulbs, and feeling far from 

 convinced of their innocence from the assertions of scientists, ob- 

 tained three, which she kept in confinement. She found that 

 they readily ate the following: Beef, mutton, pork, bread, wheat, 

 pears, and peas. Unfortunately two of these pets were fed with 

 worms taken from an old manure heap and died, showing symp- 

 toms of being poisoned. The description of these worms, as given 

 me, answered to that of Lumbrieus fcetidus, and it was un- 

 doubtedly that or an allied form which caused the trouble. Evi- 

 dently this species of the Oligochetse does not figure, naturally, 

 on the mole's bill of fare. The writer witnessed the survivor eat 

 peas greedily, running his sensitive snout from one end of the 

 pod to the other and taking out every pea. This was convincing 

 proof that the mole, under some circumstances at least, is not 

 strictly carnivorous, and it is quite likely that he is frequently a 

 malefactor as regards vegetables and roots. Personal examination 

 of stomachs in specimens secured in March, 1893, revealed nothing 

 but finely triturated earthworms, insects, and insect larvae. In 

 one captured in January, 1893, the stomach contained nothing 

 but delicate, fibrous roots. 



Amos W. Butler of Brookville, Ind. , in speaking of moles, says : 

 " I have never been satisfied that the mole in sandy soil is not 

 very destructive to young pea sprouts just as they are emerging 

 from the ground." 



Both gophers and moles are active here during the winter sea- 

 son. 



A word as to the breeding season may not be out of place. My 

 diary states that on Feb. 28, 1893, a pregnant mole was captured 

 containing three well-developed embryos, and two days later 

 another was obtained with two embryos, apparently within a few 

 days of birth. March 28, 1893, a pocket gopher was secured 

 containing four young embryos. All this indicates an early date 

 for the first litter. Probably more than one litter is produced. 

 From specimens of Arvicolinae secured it would appear that the 

 breeding time of the field-mice is contemporaneous with that of 

 the other two animals under discussion. 



ONE OF THE GYPSUM CRYSTALS FROM THE CAVE AT 

 SOUTH Wi'SH, WAYNE CO., UTAH. 



BY ALFRED J. MOSES, MINERALOGICAL LABORATORY, OOLUJIBIA 

 COLLEGE, NEW YORK. 



The Deseret Museum of Salt Lake City sent last month to Col- 

 umbia College two specimens from the remarkable deposit of 

 Selenite, in Southern Utah, which was described in a recent 

 issue of this paper. ' 



The larger of the two specimens was a portion of an evidently 

 longer prism with very perfectly devefoped terminal planes. The 

 specimen internally is colorless and glassy, but the surface is in 

 part covered by a thin opaque layer. The weight of the specimen 



> Feb. 17, 1893, pp. 88-86. 



