The courses of the underground workings are roughly indicated on the surface by series of piles of loose earth brought up through short side passages as the tunnels are extended. These little miners’ dumps of earth vary with the size of the animal, sometimes containing more than two bushels. The outlets of the passages leading to the surface are kept plugged with loose earth. When these animals are numerous the ground is thickly dotted in all directions with earth piles, and the caving caused by the network of tunnels just below the surface renders walking difficult. The perpetual industry of these rodent miners outclasses that of the proverbial beaver. Gophers are both diurnal and nocturnal, the gloom of their tunnels scarcely varying except when one of the outlets is temporarily opened. They are averse to light, and if the plug to a freshly made opening is removed the observer may soon catch a glimpse of the owner as he suddenly thrusts his head into view for a moment before again plugging the door with earth. Gophers dig their tunnels by using their teeth and the strong claws on the front feet. The loose earth is pushed along the tunnel by the head, the palms of the front feet, and the breast in little jerky movements until it is ejected on the surface dump. Owing to their poor sight, heavy bodies, and short legs, gophers are clumsy and deliberate in their movements and peculiarly helpless in the open. Apparently appreciating this, they rarely venture from their underground shelter by day except when in grain fields or similar sheltering vegetation. Here they sometimes run out two or three feet to cut down a succulent stalk and drag it hastily within the entrance of the tunnel, where it is cut into short sections and placed in the cheek pouches if to be used as food or left on the dump if the object of the cutting is finally to secure the seeds or head of ripening grain. During the mating season in spring pocket gophers run about clumsily from one burrow to another and may often be seen on the surface by the light of the rising sun. Most of their short trips above ground are made at night, when they sometimes swarm out and wander over a limited territory. Their night wanderings are proved in California by the many bodies which the morning light often reveals in the sticky crude oil on newly oiled roads which the gophers have tried to cross. From one to seven young are born in a litter, but whether there is more than one litter in a season or not is unknown. The young when about half grown migrate to unoccupied ground sometimes one or two hundred yards from the home location and make tunnels of their own.