204 



SCIEMCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 479 



sents a very large and siogularly deep excavation upon its 

 internal surface quite characteristic of the genus." The 

 articular surface of the condyle looks backwards instead of 

 upwards. The angle of the jaw is elongated and thin. 



The infra-orbital is large and bounded posteriorly by an 

 osseous bar. 



It will thus be seen that, in those families of higher forms 

 which compose the first group, the jugal arch presents a 

 typical formation. 



In the second group, the slight modifications indicative of 

 weakness, to whatever cause they may be assigned, are amply 

 recompensed by the presence of cranial crests for increased 

 muscular insertion. 



More or less disuse, as the result of the loss of masticatory 

 power, which is not needed, has so modified the arch in the 

 last group that it has become mucli reduced, and in some 

 cases has entirely disappeared. D. D. Slade. 



Cambridge, April, 1893. 



ATTEMPTED EXTERMINATION OF THE POCKET 

 GOPHER, GEOMYS BURSARIDS. 



The ravages of the pocket gopher extended very generally 

 throughout the State of Iowa, but came under my own per- 

 sonal notice in the rich and fertile farm lands of Poweshiek 

 County and surroundings. The annual loss they occasioned 

 became a matter of such serious moment to the farmers of 

 this county that on Jan. 8, 1890, an unusually liberal measure 

 was voted by the board of supervisors,- to the effect that "a 

 bounty of ten cents a head be paid on gopher scalps taken 

 in Poweshiek County, subject to the same laws and condi- 

 tions that pertain to the payment of bounties on wolf scalps, 

 and pockets must be produced in each case before the claimant 

 will be entitled to the bounty." 



These concealed little pests not only feed op surrounding 

 vegetation, but, what is worse on the whole, choke it out 

 by the innumerable mounds of earth heaped up by them 

 everywhere. 



I have seen fields which were literally black with gopher 

 hills, and, if rooting swine can be said to upturn a field, so 

 can the gopher. Besides, the loss by accidents to machinery 

 and animals occasioned by striking against the gopher hills, 

 or by sinking into their runs or holes, is very considerable. 

 So while it is not to be marvelled at that some concerted 

 action should be taken towards the extermination of such a 

 pest, yet the high price paid for the experiment must excite 

 some comment. 



Taking into account the liberal bounty offered, the univer- 

 sal prevalence of gophers in countless numbers, and the fact 

 that their capture was attended with but little labor, and only 

 trifling cost, it can readily be seen how trapping by men, as 

 well as boys, was at once tremendously stimulated. 



It actually became a lucrative employment, at which the 

 trappers spent their time in whole or in part for practically 

 the entire year. The trapping began as early as February, 

 and continued as late in the fall as December; the result of 

 it all being that the incredible number of 140,000 was trapped 

 and paid for in Poweshiek County during eleven months of 

 the year ending December, 1890. The gopher pockets were 

 taken instead of their scalps, and the price paid for 140,000 

 pockets by one county amounted to $14,000. As skill comes 

 with experience, and as the great gopher populace of the 

 county was but slightly thinned out, it was my judgment 

 and that of others, that the catch of 1891 would considerably 

 exceed that of 1890; some estimating the number that would 

 be trapped as high as 200,000. 



Accordingly the probable price which the county would- 

 have to lavish on gopher bounties bade -fair to reach propor- 

 tions that might bankrupt an ordinary county. While these 

 facts were forcibly borne in on all taxpayers, yet the farmers- 

 were willingly taxed, even adding to the bounty in many 

 cases to encourage trapping on their own lands, and stoutly 

 defended the measure in opposition to the citizens of towns 

 and villages who very unwillingly submitted to a taxation 

 that seemed to them to discriininate between town and coun- 

 try rodents, believing that it was quite as fair and reasonable 

 to apply the tax to the extermination of town rats as to field 

 gophers. 



An attempt to change the law failed, owing to the farmers'' 

 support, but in the winter of 1891 a resolution was passed 

 reducing the bounty to 6ve cents and requiring the claimants 

 to present the fore legs instead of the pockets. 



As a direct result of the I'educed bounty, rather than a re- 

 sult of diminished gophers, the catch for the year ending 

 December, 1891, was but 18,000, and of these no doubt a part 

 was trapped in 1890. Trapping began in April and ended in 

 December. 



The gopher is a prolific rodent, and it seems almost absurd' 

 to believe that in a county where they probably number- 

 millions that their ranks have been noticeably thinned or 

 their ravages diminished. The most sanguine supporters of 

 the gopher bounty allowed not less than five years for their 

 hoped-for extermination. 



Taking into account their present numbers, their prolific 

 natures, and underground habits, the attempt to oust them 

 once for all seems almost a ridiculous undertaking. But 

 what renders the present errand particularly bootless is the 

 gopher at large in surrounding counties where no bounty is 

 offered for their capture. The most persistent concerted, 

 action on the part of all the counties, while it might check 

 the pestiferous gopher, could scarcely expect to destroy it^ 

 much less can an isolated county like Poweshiek, in the very 

 heart of a gopher paradise, expect to reach that unattainable 

 end. 



Among the interesting nuts to crack offered the bounty 

 supporters are a few considerations like the following. 



As the gophers are thinned out in Poweshiek to the point 

 where trapping is less profitable than in adjoining coanties, 

 the elastic consciences which some trappers are said fo have 

 will suffer them to trap outside and sell to the more liberal 

 county, in spite of the binding oath which they must take. 



But another absurd temptation was placed in the way of 

 the faltering trapper. He could, in Iowa County, present 

 to the county auditor the fore-legs of the gopher he had 

 trapped, and draw his bounty where fore-legs were equiva- 

 lents of scalps, and by crossing the line he could present the 

 pockets of the self-same abused gopher and draw from the 

 Poweshiek treasury an additional bounty on their pockets, 

 thus making the poor gopher do him double duty. It is a 

 known fact that all have not been slow in rising fo tlieir 

 opportunities and drawing double bounty on the unfortunate 

 victims of the trap. 



In trapping gophers, it is the common practice to dig down 

 and bury ordinary steel traps in their runs, and to visit these 

 at stated intervals. The traps are not bated. 



Among the gophers caught albinos are met with occasion- 

 ally. During the fall of 1890 there were brought to me sev- 

 eral gophers with white pelage — a dirty white — looking 

 like a winter coat. 



If albinos, their eyes were not pink, which suggested the 

 possibility of an overlooked vai'iety. From Mr. F. W. Porter.. 



