An associational study of Illinois sand prairie . cts. The prairie v/hite-foot is very prolrfic, therebeing three broods each year, with from four to nine in a species stores up food, remaining active all winter. Peromyscus is a very important animal of the bunch-grass. Thenocturnal carnivores and owls, and probably the snakes of the region,feed principally on this species. Among the larger animals itoccupies a similar position to that of Melanoi)lus angustipennisamong the insects, it is a domirant form, undoubtedly ireromyscusbairdii is not the only small rodent of the sand-prairie
An associational study of Illinois sand prairie . cts. The prairie v/hite-foot is very prolrfic, therebeing three broods each year, with from four to nine in a species stores up food, remaining active all winter. Peromyscus is a very important animal of the bunch-grass. Thenocturnal carnivores and owls, and probably the snakes of the region,feed principally on this species. Among the larger animals itoccupies a similar position to that of Melanoi)lus angustipennisamong the insects, it is a domirant form, undoubtedly ireromyscusbairdii is not the only small rodent of the sand-prairie, in thicketand near forest borders, the v/hite footed wood mouse ?. leucopusnoveboracer Sis v/ill probably be found. The prairie laeadow-mouse,Microtus austerus. should be present in the open fields. One of thespermophiles, Citellus franklmi or G. tridocemlineatus is no doubtpresent. The work on the mammals v/as quite fragmentary. Geomys bursarius Siaw. June ^t), l^Ij, (Jctobcr 7, 8, The burrows of pocket gophers, with the characteristic mounds. 16 Of sand, are quite conir/ion in the bunch-grass, and in several placeswere seen in blowsand, with sparse ve^-etation. Mr. 7;ood has takenthe species at the Devils Neck. Figure 22, , shows their mound The species is veget£xrian, is active during the winter,storing up large quantities of rooto and other vegetable matter. Itis solitary. It is strictly a subterraneanjpecies, coming to thesurface only in the breeding season. Illinois is near the eastern part of the range of the pocketgopher. Gcming through the itankakee cand region in eastern Indiana,I saw from the train mounds which could hardly have been other thanthose of Geomys. The eastern limit of the range should be lookedfor in a sandy region. i^he pocket gophers boorin active tunneling very early in thespring. JJuring the greater part of the April visit there wereheavy rains and as soon as these were over many fresh mounds wereobserved. Silvila^s floridanus mearnsj, Allen.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidassocia, booksubjecttheses
