32 



POCKET GOPHERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the moment one is touched, he turns with a jump, snapping fiercely, much to the 

 detriment of fingers which may be near. If two are confined in the same cage, the 

 one does not seem aware of the presence of the other, unless they accidentally come 

 iu contact. Their eves are small, dull, and without expression. Their sen.se o,f 

 smell 1 judge to bo very delicate, from the manner in which they approach the hills 

 of potatoes. Their motions arc surprisingly quick and energetic, their activity 

 never ceasing from morning to night. 



They are very pugnacious, and a rough-and-tumble combat between two vigorous 

 males would seem terrific, if their size could be magnified a few diameters in the eye 

 of the spectator. Every muscloof their compact, elastic, stout bodies is brought into 

 action, and they plunge and bite with wonderful ferocity. A battle is usually fol- 

 lowed by the death of one or both. I have examined them after death and found the 

 whole anterior part of the body bruised almost to the consistency of paste, the 

 bones of the legs crushed in four or fivo places. When two come together in the 

 cage their salutation is a plunge and a bite. 



1 watched their burrowing with much interest. They dig by grubbing with the 

 nose and a rapid shoveling with the long curved forepaws, assisted by the pushing 

 of the hind feet, which removes the dirt from beneath the body and propel it back 

 with great power a distance of 8 or 10 inches. When a small quantity of earth has 

 accumulated in the rear of the miner, around he whirls with a vigorous flirt of the 

 tail and joining forepaws before his nose, he transmutes himself into a sort of 

 wheelbarrow, pushing the dirt before him to a convenient distance, and repeating 

 the act until the accumulation is removed, then resuming his mining Any root or 

 twig which blocks his way is quickly divided by his sharp chisel teeth. * * 

 The direction of the burrows may easily be traced by the loose hillocks of white sand 

 which are thrown up along the line at intervals of 3 or 4 feet. These are the ' dumps' 

 made by the burrower in throwing out his refuse accumulations. Each consists 

 of about a peck of loose sand, and, by the casual observer, might easily be mistaken 

 for an ant hill. No opening is visible, but by digging under the hill a hole is found, 

 the mouth of the adit to the main tunnel, which may be 3 feet below the surface if 

 made in cold weather, but perhaps not more than 6 inches if in summer. One of the 

 mounds is thrown up in a very few moments. I have seen thirty raised in a single 

 night on the line of one tunnel; this would represent nealy 100 feet of tunneling. I 

 have seen one hundred and fifty in one continuous row raised in about two days; 

 this w ould make between 400 and 500 feet of burrow completed in that short time, 

 apparently by one little animal, an amount of work which may seem incredible to 

 one who has not watched the restless movements of these animated plows, which 

 are seemingly as well adapted for piercing the sand as birds are for cleaving the air. 

 The burrows are about 2£ inches in diameter. * * * The nests are large cham- 

 bers, 1 or 2 feet from the main tunnel, with which they are connected by side pas- 

 sages, which leave nearly at right angles. Here the miners lay up a supply of 

 provisions and the chambers are often found to contain a half bushel of sweet pota- 

 toes cut up into chunks as large as peach stones, and of convenient size to. be carried 

 in the pockets. In these side chambers the salamanders rear their young, 



building a nest of grass, pine needles, and live-oak leaves. I found them breeding in 

 April. 



Mr. Morris M. Green, who obtained specimens for the division at 

 Pomona, Putnam County, Florida, in June, 1889, furnished the follow- 

 ing notes respecting their habits: 



The hills of the 'salamander,' as the Florida Geomys is called, are abundant in the 

 pine woods and clearings, on rather low and moist land. Their tunnels were from 4 to 

 24 inches below the surface; the hills wen; thrown up at intervals of from 2 to G feet, 

 ami contained about a peck of dirt each. The night and early morning seemed to be 

 their favorite time for working. It is very easy to trap a 'salamander' when fresh 



