THE QUADRUPEDS OF ARIZONA. 395 
nocturnal, never working, and rarely venturing from its 
burrow in the daytime. During the night it is very 
industrious, both in collecting food and in enlarging its 
galleries; and the amount “of fresh earth visible one 
day, where none had been the day before, is sometimes 
astonishing. Should Arizona ever become a cultivated 
region, this gopher would be wellnigh as great a pest to 
the farmer as the 7’. bulbivorus and Spermophilus Beecheyi 
are in California. We were much annoyed by their dig- 
ging around, and partially undermining our tents, causing 
the canvas flooring to slump in when trodden upon. 
Pouring water in their holes, or plugging them up with 
sticks, seemed to take effect mainly as a provocation 
to them to dig others. Though thus daily “bored”— 
literally and Sprivalivelycciby these beasts, I never saw 
one in a state of nature, and only procured two specimens 
in as many years. It is notorious that a person may live 
Surrounded by them for years, and never see one, so 
timid and retiring are they, and so strictly nocturnal. 
The Pouched F Rat (Dipodomys Ordii) is the 
main representative of its subfamily in Arizona, and ex- 
tends also over New Mexico, Texas, and part of Mexico. 
A closely allied species (D. Philippii) replaces it in Cali- 
fornia. It is one of the most abundant of the Rodents 
about Fort Whipple, where it more nearly takes the 
Place of the house rat and mouse than any other native 
Species, except an Hesperomys, to be presently noticed. It 
is beautiful in form and colors, and its motions are agile 
and graceful. Above, it is of a clear fawn color, deepen- 
ing along the middle of the back into brownish gray; the 
Whole under parts are pure silvery white, which color 
also forms an artistic contrast to the fawn, by striping 
the head and thighs. The long tail, tufted near the end, 
