504 



THE CANADIAN POUCHED RAT. 



The Common Pocket Gopher {Geomys barsarius) abounds in the region about the Missis- 

 sippi River, and southward to Texas. The short legs and soft hair of these creatures suggest 

 the moles. Five other species are known, inhabiting Central America and Mexico. This 

 animal was formerly called the Canada Pouched Rat and is sometimes known by the name 

 of "Mulo." 



The incisor teeth of this animal are extremely long, and project beyond the lip, so as to be 

 visible even at a profile view. The cheek-pouches are of great dimensions, measuring nearly 

 three inches in depth, and reaching from the sides of the mouth to the insertion of the 

 shoulder. They are lined with a soft covering of short, fine hairs. The total length of the 

 Canada Pouched Rat is about one foot, the tail being two inches long. The weight of an 

 ordinary sized adult specimen is about fourteen ounces. In shape, it is heavily made and 

 very clumsy, bearing no slight resemblance to the ordinary mole of England. Its fur is 

 about half an inch in length upon the back, and much shorter upon the abdomen. Its color 

 is a reddish -brown upon the upper parts of the body, fading into ashy-brown upon the 

 abdomen, and the feet are white. The first third of the tail is clothed with short hair 

 of the same color as that 

 of the back, but the re- 

 maining two-thirds are de- 

 void of hairy covering. 



This animal is a bur- 

 rower, and is most destruc- 

 tive among plantations, as 

 it is in the habit of eating 

 the roots which happen to 

 intercept the course of its 

 tunnel, and has been known 

 thus to destroy upwards of 

 two hundred young trees in 

 a few days and nights. Its 

 ravages are not solely re- 

 stricted to young plants, 



but are often extended to old and full-grown fruit-trees. It continues its labor by day as 

 well as by night, but is not readily discovered at its work, as it always ceases its labor at 

 the least sound from above. The burrows of the Mulo are rather complicated, and are well 

 described in the following extract from Audubon and Bachman : 





K \M 



CANADA POUCHED EAT.— Geom i/s bursal ivs. 



"Having observed some freshly thrown 



up mounds in M. Chouteau's garden, several 

 servants were called and set to work to dig out the animals, if practicable, alive ; and we soon 

 dug up several galleries worked by the Muloes, in different directions. 



" One of the main galleries was about a foot beneath the surface of the ground, except 

 when it passed under the walks, in which places it was sunk rather lower. We turned up this 

 entire gallery, which led across a large garden-bed and two walks into another bed, where we 

 discovered that several fine plants had been killed by these animals eating off their roots just 

 beneath the surface of the ground. The burrow ended near these plants under a large rose- 

 bush. We then dug out another principal burrow, but its terminus was among the roots of a 

 large peach-tree, some of the bark of which had been eaten off by these animals. We could 

 not capture any of them at this time, owing to the ramification of their galleries having 

 escaped our notice whilst following the main burrows. On carefully examining the ground, 

 we discovered that several galleries existed that appeared to ran entirely out of the garden 

 into the open fields and woods beyond, so that we were obliged to give up the chase. This 

 species throws up the earth in little mounds about twelve or fifteen inches in height, at 

 irregular distances, sometimes near each other, and occasionally ten, twenty, or even thirty 

 paces asunder, generally opening near a surface well covered with grass or vegetables of 

 various kinds." 



