PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 445 



occasion, a i)air of opossums, a raccoon, a rattlesnake more than six feet 

 long, and two otlier snakes, besides several of the native black rats of 

 the district (Florida) were taken from one of these holes."* 



The gopher is entirely graminivorous, feeding upon various succulent 

 vegetables and grass. It does not distinguish between wild and cul- 

 tivated plants, and often causes much anuoyauce to idauters in the South 

 by devouring great quantities of the sweet-potato vine and other garden 

 vegetables. It is also fond of the gum which exudes from the pine 

 tree. It has been generally supposed that the gopher wanders from 

 its den in search of food only at night, but the animals which Hol- 

 brook kept in confinement i)artook of food at all hours of the day in- 

 dift'erently. 



There is need of more extended information regarding the breeding 

 habits of gopher. The account of Dr. Savage, which, so far as I am 

 aware, contains all that has been published on the subject, is not de- 

 rived from personal observation, and is incomplete in some details. 

 From him we learn, however, that the eggs are not deposited in the burrow 

 itself, but at some point near the mouth. " The habit of the animal in 

 oviposition, it is said, is to draw a circle on the ground about four inches 

 in diameter, and to excavate within this to a depth of about the same 

 number of inches, expanding as it proceeds, in a manner similar to that 

 adopted in making its domicile. In this are deposited five white eggs, 

 of a round form. The number being complete, the cavity is filled with 

 earth and pressed down smoothly, and to a level with the surface, by 

 the weight of the animal. The time in hatching is said to be between 

 three and four weeks. The mouth in which they lay is June."t 



The age attained by Xerohafes polyphemus is a matter of some dis- 

 pute. Some herpetologists hold that the number of concentric striae 

 on the dorsal scales of a tortoise form a reliable index to the number of 

 years of its life, one ring being formed annually. But for the species 

 under consideration, at least, I am convinced that little is to be learned 

 from an examination of these strijie. Specimens, api)arently of advanced 

 age, are frequent in which long attrition with a sandy soil has effaced 

 all traces of striation from the shell. Furthermore, I conceive that if 

 the growth of the layers of the scales is connected with the phenom- 

 enon of hibernation, owing to the varying mildness of southern win- 

 ters, two or more layers might be formed in a single year. 



As the alligator snapi)er {21. lacertina) is the strongest of American 

 tortoises, as regards its jaws, so the gopher, as regards its legs. That 

 it will walk about with a man standing ujjon its back is a fact too com- 

 monly observed to admit of doubt. Le Conte writes that it cjin supi^ort 

 a maximum weight of COO pounds 5 but this statement is not derived 

 from his own observation. 



The ordinary mode of capturing the gopher is to dig a pit at the en- 



*Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xiv, 1872, p. 16. 

 . tTh. Savage, loc. cit. 



