The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-04
THE POUCHED GOPHER.
The Curious Little Animal with Hug,
I Pockets in Which He Stores Food.

| The Curious Little Animal with Hug,
Pockets in Which He Stores Food.
He is shy, quiet, thrifty chap, the
gopher, and the passing traveller
| through the New Mexican plains in.
and interested glance. The colors Of
his coat are warm, soft, but neutral
blending with the grays and duns OF
the dry, scant heritage and the In
terminable sands. In such land a
brighter coat would mean a short life
A score of enemies lie in wait for Broth
er Gopher and only his dull garb rem
Gers his foraging expeditions among
the sage brush and potato hillocks al
all safe. The keen-eyed hawk floating
high in the air above the gopher scans
che brown sands and sees no prey
Were the little digger's back one tinge
darker the bird would be upon him be-
tore he could finish gnawing that tooth
some root.
He has great use for those queer
pouches of his. Ground nuts, roots, po-
tatoes and seed pods furnish "Geomys,"
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 In
credibly large load. Finding fertile
potato hill or a cfump of heavy-laden
coclkle burrs he proceeds 10 carry the
food with all possible speed to numer-
GUS storehouses under ground. Not
until all the provender in sight has been
secured will Mr.. Gopher eat q 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-
ton of his burrowing operations will
disclose.
He humps his little back and rest-
ing partly on his tail. partly on his
hind feet and with his front paws he
fairly makes the earth fy. Every few
moments he will drop on his front feet
and with his hind ones will kick the
accumulated debris out behind him,
Whsn a fair pile is collected he wheels
about, places his front paws under the
mound and showing with his sturdy
bind legs comes putting up out of his
burrow like a tiny steam excayator.
in few hours he can dig long and
very winding burrow, and il he en-.
counters stones or roots he either I'M
dermines or gnaws through the OBJ
struction however big. He never aban-
dons his line of excavation on account
of unforeseen difficulties.
The pretty fellows make very
charming pets and very Clearly ones.
but fight nearly all the time. Acquisi-
tivepess and keen instinct of prop
erty rights make frequent disputes.
the stronger ones will soon kill the
weaker by force or starve them 20
death. One viii find the others hidden
store and appropriate it. II taken in
the theft a fight is inevitable and even
IF not badly injured the defeated gopher
seems TO take no Joy in life when his
property Is thus lost. Pockets in ami
mails as in men seem TO indicate re-
alizat4on of meus and tuus insepsrable
from a train of accompanying woes
Envy, jealousy, worry, fraud, fear,
greed and suspicion almost unknown
10 ssvages and 10 pouchless creatures,
make the gophers' lives very turbulent
And In common with human society
they suffer from that most detestAble
of thieves, the piekpeckeL-N. Y.
World.