"Your cousin, Seek Seek the Spermophile, sometimes called Gopher
Squirrel, who lives on the open plains of the West where there are
no rocks or stones. He likes best the flat, open country. He is
called Spermophile because that means seed-eater, and he lives
largely on seeds, especially on grain. Because of this he does a
great deal of damage and is much disliked by farmers.

"Seek Seek's family are the true Ground Squirrels. Please remember
that they never should be called Gophers, for they are not Gophers.
One of the smallest members of the family is just about your size,
Striped Chipmunk, and he also wears stripes, only he has more of
them than you have, and they are broken up into little dots. He
is called the Thirteen-lined Spermophile. He has pockets in his
cheeks just as you have, and he makes a home down in the ground
very similar to yours. All the family do this, and all of them
sleep through the winter. While they are great seed-eaters they
also eat a great many insects and worms, and some of them even
are guilty of killing and eating the babies of birds that nest
on the ground, and also young mice.

"Some members of the family are almost as big as Happy Jack the
Gray Squirrel and have gray coats. They are called Gray Ground
Squirrels and sometimes Gray Gophers. One of the largest of these
is the California Ground Squirrel. He has a big, bushy tail, very
like Happy Jack's. He gets into so much mischief in the grain
fields and in the orchards that he is quite as much disliked as is
Jack Rabbit. This particular member of the family is quite as much
at home among rocks and tree roots as in open ground. He climbs low
trees for fruit and nuts, but prefers to stay on the ground. Now