183 



regretting that an earlier knowledge of its occurrence in Dr. Kirtland's 

 list had not permitted its appearance in the body of this report. 



The writer can recall a common pastime of the school boys in North- 

 «rn Illinois. During the 'long noon intermissions of the spring or sum- 

 mer term, several of the larger boys, with a couple of pails, would resort 

 to some adjacent field and " drown out gophers," by pouring water into 

 their burrows ; the nearly strangled animals came more dead than alive 

 to the surface and were readily caught alive, or more probably caught by 

 the dogs, who understood the sport as well as the boys. No mercy is 

 shown them, as they have a bad reputation among the farmers, mainly 

 because of their injuring cornfields by digging up the newly planted 

 seed. I have known farmers, residing on newly broken prairie, to feed 

 the gophers abundantly by scattering corn on the fields and about the 

 burrows so that the planted corn might not be molested. The corn thus 

 fed had been previously soaked in poisoned water. This, with shooting 

 and "drowning out" usually proved an effectual safeguard for the plant- 

 ed corn. This species, like the prairie rattlesnake Caudisona tergtminus, 

 rapidly disappears before the plough, rarely invading fields not adjacent 

 to meadows or wild prairies. 



The carnivorous habits of this species have been mentioned in con- 

 nection with the Grey Gopher. 



Dr. Hoy, of Wisconsin, has shown that this animal feeds upon mice 

 and insects when captive, killing and devouring mice with all the dex- 

 terity and ferocity of the weasel. Dr. Hoy found the skins of meadow 

 mice in the burrows of this spermophile, and, as Mr. Kennicott suggests, 

 it is quite likely that their good offices in the destruction of mice and 

 insects more than compensates for any mischief they may do in corn- 

 fields. 



This is the most beautiful inhabitant of the prairie. Lithe and grace- 

 ful, beautifully striped and spotted, it takes the place on the prairie of 

 the common chipmonk or striped squirrel of the woodlands. 



Their droll manner, under observation, is described by Kennicott : 



" In passing near a knoll inhabited by them, numbere may be seen standing upright 

 at the entrance of tleir borrows, so straight and motionless as to be easily mistaken for 

 as many sticks. But as you approach one he will disappear by a movement so rapid 

 that he can scarcely be followed by the eye ; and if it were not for the whistling chatter 

 accompanying his disappearance you might think your vision had deceived you, and 

 that nothing had been there. But, upon stepping back several rods, it is more than 

 likely he will have resumed his. position before you are aware of it. If yon remain 

 «lose to his hole, he will only thrust out his head and eye you suspiciously." 



Five to nine young — usually six or seven — are brought forth at the 

 •end of May or first of June ; they are naked, blind, and remarkably em- 



