248 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



States from Cape Cod to Florida, usually in coastal plain rivers; the 

 largest turtle in this territory except the snapper; used for food. 



P. floridana (LeConte). Carapace circular and very high; head 

 black, very small; carapace dark brown, with wavy yellow cross bars, 

 325 mm. long and 225 mm. wide; plastron yellow; lower jaw nearly 

 smooth: Florida and southern Georgia. 



P. alabamensis Baur. Carapace high and 300 mm. long; plastron 

 yellow; color similar to P. ruhriventris: Gulf coast from Florida to 

 Louisiana. 



P. texana Baur. Carapace brown, with yellow concentric lines; 

 plastron yellow; head streaked with yellow; length of carapace 230 mm.; 

 width 170 mm.: southwestern Missouri to Texas and Mexico. 



8. Deirochelys Agassiz. Similar to Chrysemys; upper jaw notched 

 in front; lower jaw arched upwards and terminating in a sharp point; 

 neck long: i species. 



D. reticularia (Latreille). Chicken turtle. Carapace narrow, 

 rather high, and olive or brown in color with a net-work of fine yellow 

 lines, each upper marginal with a yellow bar and each under marginal 

 with a black blotch on a yellow field; plastron yellow; length of carapace 

 125 mm.; width 80 mm.; neck very long: Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain 

 from central North Carolina to and including the Mississippi alluvial 

 plain; southward to central Florida. 



9. Gopherus Rafinesque. Land tortoises. Shell high and dome- 

 like; plastron large and often with a hinged front lobe; feet not webbed: 

 3 species in the United States, all herbivorous and strictly terrestrial; 

 they are allied to the giant land tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, the 

 largest of which has a carapace a meter and a third in length and weighs 

 over 225 kilos. 



Key to the United States Species of Gopherus 



ai In the southern and south-central States G. polyphemus. 



ao In Texas G. berlandieri. 



as In the extreme southwest G. agassizii. 



G. polyphemus (Daudin). Gopher turtle. Carapace with concen- 

 tric lines on each scale, brownish in color; plastron dull yellow, notched 

 behind, extending beyond the carapace in front; length of carapace 

 280 mm. ; width 200 mm. ; inner surface of fore arm with enlarged scales : 

 south Atlantic and Gulf States; northward to South Carolina and 

 Arkansas; gregarious, living in dry, sandy regions and burrowing in the 

 ground. The burrow runs obliquely in the ground to a depth of 4 or 

 more feet, and is enlarged at the end, where a single pair lives. 



