THE PRAIRIE GROUND SQUIRRELS OR SPERMOPHILES 

 OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The destructive animals that form the subject of the present bulletin 

 belong to the genus Spermophilus, and are commonly known as spermo- 

 philes. The name is derived from the Greek words a-nip^a, seed, and 

 ytleiv, to love, in allusion to the fact that seeds form a large proportion 

 of the food of the various species. In the Old World the spermophiles 

 are known as sousliks, while in America they are popularly called 

 gophers or ground squirrels. The term 'gopher,' however, belongs 

 properly to a very different group of animals, to which it should be 

 restricted, namely the pocket gophers which have external cheek 

 pouches, and resemble the moles in living underground and throwing 

 up little mounds along the courses of their subterranean tunnels. 

 'Ground Squirrel' is a less objectionable name, because these animals 

 really are ground squirrels ; the term is however commonly applied to 

 the chipmunks belonging to the related genus Tamias; hence the name 

 spermophile is here used in preference to either of the others. 



The object of the present bulletin is to describe the haunts and 

 habits of the five species inhabiting the Mississippi Valley region, and 

 to summarize the remedies that have been used with greatest success 

 in holding their numbers in check. SpermopMlus is a large genus, 

 and is found throughout the greater portion of the north temper- 

 ate region of both hemispheres from eastern Europe across northern 

 Asia, and over the western two-thirds of North America. The total 

 number of species and subspecies of spermophiles inhabiting the United 

 States is about thirty-five, and most of them are restricted to the arid 

 and subarid region west of the Eocky Mountains. Throughout their 

 range, wherever the land is under cultivation, they are among the most 

 destructive of mammals, feeding on grain, fruit, and garden vegetables 

 to such an extent that the annual losses from their depredations must 

 be counted in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several States have 

 paid large sums in bounties for their destruction, without materially 

 reducing their numbers. 



The region here considered comprises the Mississippi Valley in a 

 very broad sense, including the fertile prairies of the valley proper, and 



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