GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 225 



Blatchley's "A Nature Wooing at Ormoiid by the Sea."t Some 

 others will be referred to farther on in connection with particular 

 groups of animals. 



Notes on the vertebrate fossils can be found in Dr. Sellards' 

 papers on phosphate mentioned under economic geology (p. 158), 

 and in earlier works cited therein ; and numerous references to fossil 

 shells are given in the bibliographies in the First and Twelfth An- 

 nual Reports. 



Mammals. As in most other thinly settled parts of the eastern 

 United States, bears and deer can be found in almost any county 

 in central Florida if one goes far enough from civilization and has 

 good luck, and stories of the latter being killed appear in the local 

 papers almost every day in the hunting season. Rabbits, squir- 

 rels, 'coons and 'possums are probably as common here as in other 

 parts of the South. Noteworthy papers on our mammals have 

 been published by S. N. Rhoads in the Proceedings of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 1894, 1895 and 1902, 

 and by Outram Bangs in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, vol. 28, pp. 157-235, 1898. 



From an annotated list of North American land mammals by 

 Gerrit S. Miller, Jr.,| it appears that at least forty species (not 

 counting sub-species) can be found in our area, including the opos- 

 sum, mole, 2 shrews, 6 bats, bear, wolf, gray fox, raccoon, weasel, 

 mink, 2 skunks or polecats, otter, panther, wildcat, 8 native 

 mice and rats, salamander, 3 squirrels, 2 rabbits, and deer. Sev- 

 eral of them are classed as geographical varieties or sub-species 

 peculiar to Florida and differing slightly from the more widely 

 distributed forms in neighboring states. These forty are only about 

 2% of the total number known in North America, but about 30% 

 oi the species occurring in the eastern United States. 



One of our most abundant mammals, very rarely seen but 

 easily followed up, is the "salamander" (a rodent, Geomys Flor- 

 idaniis). It travels underground in high pine land and old fields, 

 throwing up mounds of sand every few feet, but never leaving its 

 burrows open, at least in the daytime. This particular species is 



t245 pages* 12 plates. Indianapolis, 1902. 



$U. S. Nat. Mils. Bull. 79- xiv + 455 pp. "Dec. 31, 1912." 



