Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/46

 the nest of the gopher bursarius or pouched," says Anderson. There seems to be a distinction here properly drawn between the Missouri &quot;gopher&quot; (Geomys bursarius), and the Wisconsin prairie-squirrel,—the name &quot;gopher&quot; describing the burrowing of the creature, and signifying a gray squirrel in Canada, a striped squirrel in Wisconsin, and a pouched rat in Missouri; also a snake in Georgia, and a turtle in Florida. Immediately after noticing this squirrel, sitting erect by his hole, Thoreau observes a ribbon-snake in a swamp, and follows an Indian path over the prairie, where grain had been threshed with a machine. He notes that the more ornamental trees are poplars and willows, and that in Lake Calhoun are bass and bream for fish. On the prairie near are &quot;a great number of goldenrods.&quot;

Returning to Minnehaha, he describes the striped spermophile, S. tridecemlineatus, thus:

Dirty grayish-white beneath,—above, dirty brown, with six dirty, tawny, or