4:16 
VERTEBRATA. 
tribes, the Saccoplioriens and Saccomyens. We shall notice them under six genera, the two first 
of which belong to the Saccophoriens, and the four last to the Saccoynyens. 
Genus SACCOPHORTJS : Saccophorus. — This term — which is nearly synonymous with the 
Pseudostoma of Say, the Geomys and Diplostojna of Rafinesqtie, the Ascomys of Lichtenstein, and 
the Saccomys of F. Cuvier — means Sack-Bearer^ and includes various small animals found from 
Canada to Mexico. They are partially nocturnal, hibernate, and become somewhat dormant in 
winter, in cold but not in warm countries, and use their cheek-sacks or pouches, which generally 
open externally, for the purpose of bringing food to their burrows. They are all vegetable eaters. 
The Canada Pouched-Rat, or the Pursed-Saccophorus, 8. hursarius^ is of a reddish-brown 
color above, and dark-brown below ; the body, which is stout and cylindrical, is seven or eight 
inches long, the tail two and a quarter. The cheek-pouches, one on each side, open externally, 
so that food in the pouches has to be taken out and carried round to the mouth ; they are very 
large, being three inches deep, and lined with hair. The eyes are small, the ears short and hardly 
visible. The fur is thick and soft. It digs extensive burrows in sandy places, much in the man- 
ner of the mole, though lower down. At distances of some twenty yards apart, it has openings, 
usually near some spot covered with grass or vegetables. It sometimes frequents gardens, where 
it eats the roots of the plants and gnaws the bark of the peach-trees. Sometimes it destroys large 
numbers of fruit-trees, plums, pears, and apples. The pouches are used to convey food to its bur- 
rows; it can travel nearly as fast backward as forward; it bites severely, and resists an attack 
uttering sharp screams. These creatures fight among themselves with their snouts like hogs. They 
feed sitting on their rumps, using their fore-paws like hands; they clean their hair, whiskers, and 
body like rats and squirrels. They feed on vegetables of various kinds; the nest is usually rounded, 
formed of soft substances, lined with the hair of the female, and is placed in the center of several 
converging galleries. The young are five to seven at a birth, and are produced in March or April. 
This species is found in Canada, and thence westward to the Pacific, and soiithward, in certain lo- 
calities, to Arkansas. It is common in Illinois and Missouri; at the latter place it is called Mulo. 
There are many other species of pouched rats in North America, but the only ones mentioned 
by Gervais under this genus are the S. Mexicanus and S. Boitce, the first found in Mexico and the 
last in California. M. Leconte, in a recent work, enumerates eleven species for the United States 
and Mexico, arranging them under the genus Geomys. Other writers notice the following under 
the generic name of PSEUDOSTOMA, including those mentioned by Gervais and Leconte. The 
cheek-pouches, generally, open outside of the mouth. 
The Columbia Pouched-Rat, P. Douglassii — ^the Columbia Sand-Rat of Richardson — is six 
inches and a half long, is of a dusky-brown color, and of a lighter shade beneath. It is found west 
of the Rocky Mountains, from the sources of the Missouri to Fort Vancouver. It burrows in the 
sand-hills, and feeds on nuts, acorns and grasses ; in the vicinity of the settlements it commits 
great havoc in the potato-fields, alike by eating and carrying ofl" in its pouches large quantities 
of the potatoes. 
The MoLE-sHAPED Pouched-Rat, P. talpdides^ is grayish-black, seven inches long, and is found 
from Hudson's Bay to the Saskatchewan. 
The Camas Rat, P. Borealis — the Geomys Townsendii of Richardson — is called Gauffre by 
the French, and hence Gopher by the Americans, a term also applied to several other species ; 
it is of a pale yellowish-gray, seven and a half inches long, and derives its common name from 
its fondness for the Quamash or Camas p)lant, Scilla esculata. It is exceedingly voracious, and, 
like all other pouched-rats, feeds on nuts, roots, grasses, and seeds, and makes burrows, not far 
beneath the surface of the ground, to a great distance. It is said that in digging its burrows it 
uses its large cheek-pouches like bags to bring up the earth, emptying them at the mouth of the 
burrow. Like others of this tribe it is to a certain extent gregarious, many of them being always 
found in the same locality. This sr)ecies is common near the Columbia River in Oregon. 
The Southern Pouched-Rat, P. Floridana, is of a brownish-yellow above and gray beneath ; 
its length is between eight and nine inches. It resembles the Canada pouched-rat, and is prob- 
ably the species named the Georgia Hamster by Rafinesque and others. Its cheek-pouches, how- 
ever, open into the mouth. It is found in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. 
