10 



NOETH AMEEICAisr FAUN^A. 



[no. 39. 



Usually, however, the opening may be found by the depression 

 where the last load of earth was left, and the direction of its slope 

 downward determined by the position from which the mound of 

 earth was pushed out. This also serves to distinguish a gopher 

 hill from a molehill, as the mole pushes up the earth from below 

 without making an opening to the daylight. Often the opening 

 is near some plant, as the gopher evidently recognizes a choice 

 species b}^ the root and, following it to the surface, devours or 

 carries it away. 



These mounds or ''gopher hills," frequently cover low vegetation; 

 on wild land this serves to enrich the soil, but in fields and meadows 

 they often cover and destroy the growing grain and forage, and also 

 interfere with mowing and harvesting. 



; FOOD HABITS. 



Gophers of all species of TJiomomys are strict vegetarians. Their 

 food consists for the most part of roots, bulbs, tubers, and the most 

 edible and nutritious underground parts of plants, but it includes 

 also much green vegetation from aboveground. As they extend 

 their tunnels gophers find wild onions, liliaceous bulbs, wild potatoes, 

 underground beans, grass tubers, and an endless number of edible 

 roots. These are cut in sections or, if of convenient shape and size, 

 tucked in the pockets whole, and when the pockets are well filled 

 are carried to the dining room to be eaten at leisure or deposited 

 in the storeroom for future use. When gophers are trapped their 

 pockets usually contain articles of food, sometimes so much that 

 they stand out on both sides of the head. 



The list of plants found in the pockets is fong and varied. Some 

 of the fleshy desert plants, as cactuses, yuccas, agaves, and sotol are 

 entered from below and the juicy centers eaten out. Wild clovers 

 and a greats many leguminous plants are favorite foods, while grass 

 stems and blades are eaten to some extent. Very small bushes are 

 sometimes cut down near the burrows and the bark eaten, but trees 

 are rarely injured aboveground. - 



Gophers apparently do not require water, and it is doubtful if 

 they drink at all. Many desert species thrive for long periods, 

 sometimes a year or more, where they can not get water, but green 

 food and juicy roots evidently supply all the moisture they need. 



DAMAGE TO CROPS. 



Pocket gophers show a keen appreciation of man's efforts in agri- 

 culture and horticulture by resorting to cultivated areas. They 

 revel in potato fields, and one gopher will destroy a long row of the 

 tubers, taking one hiU after another from the time they first appear 

 until they are harvested. They quickly attack newly planted areas, 



