Gopher
Gopher names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Gopher Pocket, a family of pouched rodents
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Pocket, a family of pouched rodents. There are several species inhabiting the plains of Central and North America . The pouched gopher has teeth like those of a rat and soft fur. It looks like a large mole, but it has a wrinkled, villainously cross countenance. Its peculiar name comes from a large outside pouch, which may be likened to a deep, roomy dimple, near each corner of the mouth. The pocket gopher lives underground. Instead of pushing the dirt aside and crowding its body through, as a mole does, the gopher excavates long passages like the tunnel of an underground railway, something more than the depth of a plow furrow beneath the surface. The fore paws are armed with strong claws with which it digs its way, cramming the dirt into its pouches until they are bulged like apples. It then proceeds to the mouth of its burrow and ejects the soil, by a muscular heave of the pockets, to a distance of four or five inches. When the tunnel has progressed a few yards, the old opening is filled up and a new outlet is made above the point of digging. The course of the tunnel may be traced by the piles of dirt--a few quarts, or possibly a half a bushel, at regular intervals, sometimes for half a mile across the prairie sward or stubble field. The gopher is quite shy and ceases to work if alarmed, but resumes when all is quiet. About all that one can see, however, is a handful of dirt mysteriously heaved out every once in a while. The gopher lives on such roots apparently as it meets in its burrowing or finds readily in its burrow walls. It collects stores of the roots of wild sunflowers and the like. Ordinarily the pocket gopher does little damage. Once in a while it locates a row of young potatoes and follows it industriously, taking every tuber. Gophers are easily taken by setting a steel trap loosely sprinkled with earth in the bottom of the tunnel. The excavation must be covered up again to darken the runway. Badgers are the chief foe of the pocket gopher. When pursued it burrows rapidly, packing the dirt behind it. A dog cannot dig fast enough to overtake it. The western prairies are dotted with little hillocks a few feet high, called gopher knolls. It is not known whether they have been heaped up by generations of pocket gophers or not; but, at all events, they are centers of gopher life deep within which the home nest is excavated. See Camass Gordian Knot. According to legendary lore, Gordius, king of Phrygia, tied the neck yoke of his chariot to the pole with a knot so intricate that no one could untie it. An oracle, or tradition of the temple in which it was kept, ran to the effect that whosoever untied the knot should become master of Asia. Young Alexander, afterward called the Great, heard of this knot, and went with his companions to see it. After a careful examination, he drew his sword, it is said, and severed the yoke from the pole. Hence the proverbial expression of solving a difficulty "by cutting the Gordian knot."
Gopher gofer, a burrowing ground squirrel
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
gofer, a burrowing ground squirrel, native in the prairie regions of North America . The latter name is much to be preferred. There are several species, bearing a general resemblance to the chipmunk, but exceeding it in size. The striped ground squirrel has about thirteen lines of color running the length of its back, dirty white stripes alternating with rows of dark spots on a yellowish ground. A western species is much like it only larger. A gray species is found from Illinois northwestward. This squirrel excavates long burrows, extending beneath the reach of frost, and stores considerable quantites of prairie seeds. It is troublesome to farmers in a newly settled country. It sleeps away the winter in a snug nest well lined with grasses. The little animal has a fashion of sitting upon its haunches to see what is going on. When on a trip from burrow to field it scampers along for a few yards, then sits up to look about and resumes its journey. When a bit of prairie is freshly burned, well worn gopher paths may be discovered running here and there. On bright spring days the gopher delights to sit up near its burrow and whistle defiance to the world of care. The name gopher is French, and may be given to any burrowing animal; hence its application to the Louisiana gopher, which is a tortoise that takes shelter by burrowing in the sand. See Prairie Dog ; Chipmunk ; Squirrel
Gopher a name given by the early French settlers in
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a name given by the early French settlers in the United States to various animals which honeycomb the ground by burrowing in it. In Canada and Illinois it was given to a gray burrowing squirrel , Spermophilus Franklini, W. of the Mississippi to S. Richardsonii, in Wisconsin to a striped squirrel, and in Missouri to a burrowing pouched rat, Geomys bursarius . All these are GOPHER mammals; but in Georgia the term was applied to a snake, Coluber coupen, and in Florida to a turtle, Testudo polyphemus. GÖPPINGEN, a town in berg, Germany, situated on the Fils, 26 Württemmiles by rail from Stuttgart. It is noted for its production of textile goods, toys, agricultural machinery , and enameled ware. Pop. about 25,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The field observations in Aiton's 1910 entries still hold: pocket gophers do plug their tunnels behind them, and thirteen-lined ground squirrels do sit up to whistle. What has moved is naming and status. Collier's 1921 Latin names have all been revised (Spermophilus franklinii is now Poliocitellus franklinii, and the striped species is Ictidomys tridecemlineatus), while the Florida "gopher" turtle, Testudo polyphemus, is now Gopherus polyphemus, listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and treated as a keystone species whose burrows shelter hundreds of other animals. Aiton's open question about whether the prairie hillocks were "heaped up by generations of pocket gophers" is still argued over, though gopher activity is now the leading explanation for such mounds.
Written for this edition, 2026.