Delaware gazette and state journal., 1895-12-26
TINE poUoHrD sopaER.


The Curious Little Animal With Huge
Pockets In Witch ne stores Food-Peou-
liar to the Southwest.
lie is shy, quiet, thrifty chap, the
gopher, and the passing traveller through
me new Mexican plains invariably
pestows on him an admiripg and inter
ested glance. The colors of his coat are
warm, soft, hut neutral, blending with
the grays and duns of the dry, scant
herbage and the interminable sands. In
such land brighter coat would
mean short life. score Of enemies
lie in wait for Brother Gopher and
only his dull garb renders his foraging
expeditions among the. sage brush and
potato hillocks at ALI safe. The keen
eyed hawk floating high in the air
above the gopher scans the brown sands
and sees no prey. We're the little dig
ger's back one tinge darker the bird
would be upon him before he could
finish gnawjng that toothsome root.
| He has great use for those queer
pouches OF his. Ground nuts, roots,
potatoes and seed pods furnish
Geomys, y as the book worms call the
gopher, with good living. In the
capacious pouches which hang from
his mouth to his shoulder he can carry
an Incredibly large load. Finding a
fertile potato bill or clump of heavy
laden cookie burrs he proceeds to carry
| the food with all possible speed to num-
erous storehouses under ground. Not
| until all the provender in sight has been
secured will Mr.. Gopher eat single
morsel. There is thrift for you.
| And he does not carry sand or dirt
in those pretty pockets, as most OF the
stories about him incorrectly state.
He has no need to do so as an inspec-
tion of his burrowing operations will
| disclose.
He humps his little back and resting
partly on his tail, partly on his hind
feet and with his front paws he fairly
makes the earth fly. Every few mo.
ments he will drop on his front feet and
with his hind ones will kick the ac-
cumulated debris behind him. When
fair pile is collected he wheels about
places his front Caws under the mound
and showing with his sturdy hind legs
comes putting up out of his burrow like
a tiny steam eScayator. In few
hours he can dig long and very wind.
ing burrow, and il he encounters stones
or roots he either undermines or gnaws
through the obstruction however big.
He never abanduns his line of excava.
tions on account of unforeseen difficult
ties.
. The pretty fellows mako very charm
ing pets and very cleanly ones, but fight
nearly all the time AcGusitiveness
and keen instinct of property rights
mako frequent disputes. Unless the
cage be very large one the stronger
cnes will soon kill the weaker by force
or starve them to death. One will find
the others hidden store and appropri-
alto il. II taken in the theft a tight is
inevitable and even il not badly injured
the defeated gopher seems to take no
joy in life when his property is thus
lost Pockets in animals as in men
seem to indicate realization of meus
and tuus inseparable from train of
ACCOMPANYING woes Envy, jealousy,
worry, fraud, fear, greed and suspicion
almost unknown to savages and to
pouchless creatures, make the gopher's
lives very turbulent. And in common
with human society they suffer from
that most detestable of thieves, the
pickpocket.