TESTUDINIDAE 371 





selves in water, and they drank a great deal. Copulation 

 lasted about ten minutes ; the females received the males from 

 the end of June to the middle of October. On the llth of 

 November a female dug a pit at the root of a tuft of grass, having 

 previously watered the spot, then digging with the hind-limbs 

 alternately, and continuing to water the soil. In two hours she 

 had made a hole six inches deep and four wide ; she then laid 

 four pure white eggs, each about 1^- inches or 45 mm. long, 

 and filled the hole again with the prepared mud, pressing it well 

 in with the feet and with the weight of the body. The whole 

 operation took four hours. From December to the beginning of 

 February these tortoises were listless, they then took water and 

 some lucerne, but did not come out again until the middle of April, 

 well in the hot season. Both males and females wrestled in a 

 curious way. One confronted the other, with the head and fore- 

 limbs drawn into the shell, and with the hind-limbs planted 

 firmly on the ground, and in this manner shoving against each 

 other in any narrow space. Sometimes, if one succeeded in 

 placing its shell beneath the other, he tilted his adversary over 

 on his back, from which position he had great difficulty in re- 

 covering himself. 



T. polyphemus, the " Gopher Tortoise " of the south-eastern 

 States of North America, is one of the few American species. It 

 is characterised by the shape of the front lobe of the plastron, 

 which is bent upwards, and extends beyond the carapace. The 

 nuchal shield is present, not narrow ; the supracaudal is un- 

 divided. The shell is much depressed, and flattened along the 

 vertebral region, with rounded margins. The fore - limbs are 

 armed with very strong claws. The general colour is very dark 

 brown above, inclining to black ; brownish yellow below, with 

 blackish patches. The length of the shell is about one foot, or 

 even eighteen inches. 



The Gopher is interesting, for its habits, which are described 

 by Agassiz, Schnee, and others. Its domicile consists of an 

 excavation, the mouth of which is just sufficient to admit the 

 animal, the burrow running in an oblique direction to the depth 

 of about four feet. The whole passage is sometimes more than 

 t\v<> yards long. It expands from the entrance, and ends in a 

 roomy space, sometimes with a few branches of fir trees which 

 have been dragged in either for food or as a lining. The burrow 



