34 



POCKET GOPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the burrow during a cold rain and had been chilled to death. At Ver- 

 digris, Nebr., a female caught Juue 12, 1893, was nursing young. In 

 southern Minnesota, in the latter part of May, my dog once dug out a 

 nest containing two that could not have been a week old. They looked 

 wonderfully like little babies. They had no visible hair, their com- 

 plexion was a beautifully translucent pinky-white, their heads were 

 round, and their little fat hands and fingers were touchingly babyish. 

 Both eyes and ears were tightly sealed. They were helpless, and had 

 the appearance of being born in a very rudimentary or undeveloped 

 condition. The nest was a bed of soft grass and vegetable fibers on 

 the bottom of an oval chamber in the burrow. Whether two is the 

 usual number of young seems doubtful.* 



Before the young are half grown they begin to run about in the bur- 

 row and strike off in side tunnels of their own. Sometimes they leave 

 the parent burrow and begin a new one that does not connect with it. 

 It is not uncommon to catch one when no more than half grown living 

 in a burrow some distance from any other. Their hermit life has then 

 fairly begun. By autumn they are practically full grown and have 

 learned all the art of i gopher ruining.' 



Numerous complaints ha ve been received of the injury done to fruit and 

 shade trees, hedges, and garden vegetables. On the prairies Gophers 

 damage the groves of planted timber by gnawing the roots. They are 

 especially troublesome in nurseries or wherever young trees are planted 

 close together. Large trees are not often killed. Small ones are quickly 

 ruined. The Honorable J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture, 

 states that on his farm in eastern Nebraska Pocket Gophers are partic- 

 ularly destructive to the horse chestnut and ginkgo trees, gnawing off 

 the roots in preference to those of other trees. 



There is hardly a product of the garden or field that Gophers do not 

 accept as food, but the starchy, tuberous, or bulbous roots are preferred 

 to all else. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, onions, and parsnips are 

 favorites. Melons, squashes, and pumpkins are frequently gnawed 

 and spoiled when a gopher hole happens to come up near them. 

 Pumpkins and squashes are sometimes entered through a hole and the 

 inside eaten out. It is not rare to find a gopher hole extending along 

 a potato row and every hill entered and entirely cleaned out. Some- 

 times one row will be followed several rods and then another row 

 attacked. One Gopher allowed in a potato field will do considerable 

 damage and a larger number will easily ruin the crop. In fact, a 

 number of cases have been reported where so much of the crop was 

 taken by Gophers that the remainder was not considered worth har- 

 vesting. 



* In many animals the number of young bears a definite relation to the number of 

 teats. All of the Pocket Gophers have 6 teats, 3 on each side — 2 inguinal and 1 pec- 

 toral. The former are situated close together at the posterior extremity of the belly ; 

 tint latter are on each side of the breast. The number indicates- that three is the 

 usual number of young, with a probable variation of from two to six. 



