504 
THE CANADIAN POUCHED RAT. 
The Common Pocket Gopher ( Qeomys barsarius) abounds in the region about the Missis- 
sippi River, and southward to Texas. The short legs and soft hair of these creatures suggest 
the moles. Five other species are known, inhabiting Central America and Mexico. This 
animal was formerly called the Canada Pouched Rat and is sometimes known by the name 
of “ Mulo.” 
The incisor teeth of this animal are extremely long, and project beyond the lip, so as to be 
visible even at a profile view. The cheek-pouches are of great dimensions, measuring nearly 
three inches in depth, and reaching from the sides of the mouth to the insertion of the 
shoulder. They are lined with a soft covering of short, fine hairs. The total length of the 
Canada Pouched Rat is about one foot, the tail being two inches long. The weight of an 
ordinary sized adult specimen is about fourteen ounces. In shape, it is heavily made and 
very clumsy, bearing no slight resemblance to the ordinary mole of England. Its fur is 
about half an inch in length upon the back, and much shorter upon the abdomen. Its color 
is a reddish-brown upon the upper parts of the body, fading into ashy-brown upon the 
abdomen, and the feet are white. The first third of the tail is clothed with short hair 
of the same color as that 
of the back, but the re- 
maining two-thirds are de- 
void of hairy covering. 
This animal is a bur- 
rower, and is most destruc- 
tive among plantations, as 
it is in the habit of eating 
the roots which happen to 
intercept the course of its 
tunnel, and has been known 
thus to destroy upwards of 
two hundred young trees in 
a, few days and nights. Its 
ravages are not solely re- 
stricted to young plants, 
but are often extended to old and full-grown fruit-trees. It continues its labor by day as 
well as by night, but is not readily discovered at its work, as it always ceases its labor at 
the least sound from above. The burrows of the Mulo are rather complicated, and are well 
described in the following extract from Audubon and Bachman : 
“Having observed some freshly thrown up mounds in M. Chouteau’s garden, several 
servants were called and set to work to dig out the animals, if practicable, alive ; and we soon 
dug up several galleries worked by the Muloes, in different directions. 
“ One of the main galleries was about a foot beneath the surface of the ground, except 
when it passed under the walks, in which places it was sunk rather lower. We turned up this 
entire gallery, which led across a large garden-bed and two walks into another bed, where we 
discovered that several fine plants had been killed by these animals eating off their roots just 
beneath the surface of the ground. The burrow ended near these plants under a large rose- 
bush. We then dug out another principal burrow, but its terminus was among the roots of a 
large peach-tree, some of the bark of which had been eaten off by these animals. We could 
not capture any of them at this time, owing to the ramification of their galleries having 
escaped our notice whilst following the main burrows. On carefully examining the ground, 
we discovered that several galleries existed that appeared to run entirely out of the garden 
into the open fields and woods beyond, so that we were obliged to give up the chase. This 
species throws up the earth in little mounds about twelve or fifteen inches in height, at 
irregular distances, sometimes near each other, and occasionally ten, twenty, or even thirty 
paces asunder, generally opening near a surface well covered with grass or vegetables of 
various kinds.” 
CANADA POUCHED EAT. — Geomys bursarius. 
