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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The flesh of the gopher tortoise is very good eating. In "gopher pull 

 ing," a grapevine with an iron hook at the end is thrust into the bur 

 row, and the unfortunate occupant is pulled from its retreat 



tracts of a number captured iu western 

 Florida showed the chief food to be the 

 common wire grass (Aristida sp.). I have 

 the additional proof of having seen the 

 gopher eating wire grass (which, by the 

 wav, is the most easilv available food where 



"Gopher pulling" is regulated by law in Florida and has its open and 

 close seasons as have brook trout and black bass fishing in the North 



the gopher is found). 

 With its sharp man- 

 dibles it crops this 

 tough grass with as 

 great ease, appar- 

 ently, as might an 

 animal with sharp, 

 cliisel-like teeth. It 

 swallows the grass 

 in pieces nearly two 

 inches long, and the 

 wire grass is so stiff 

 that it must be like 

 swallowing tooth- 

 picks. 



The female gopher 

 lays her eggs at the 

 mouth of the bur- 

 row, I have been 

 told by reliable ob- 

 servers, and covers 

 them in much the 

 same way as does 

 the green sea turtle. 

 The number of eggs is surprisingly small, 

 being only from three to six at a laying. 



In the daytime, the gopher is frequently 

 seen traveling across the country, but I think 

 it is inclined to be nocturnal in its habits. 

 The fame of the gopher, however, rests not 

 upon its habits which are interesting from 

 the standpoint of the naturalist, but just 

 as ^Y\th. the blue point, or pompano, or can- 

 vas-back, it is famous because the flesh has 

 been found to be a delicacy. Whoever has 

 visited the Southland, and has not yet eaten 

 "jjopher gumbo," has not yet been initiated 

 into the art of good eating. This far- 

 famed dish consists of a soup thickened with 

 the mucilaginous pods of okra, and con- 

 tains so much meat of the gopher that it 

 perhaps would be more appropriate to call it 

 a "stew." When we are walking along the 

 streets of the towns and cities of Florida, 

 it is a common thing 

 to see on the side- 

 walk in front of gro- 

 cery stores crates of 

 live chickens, for the 

 South is surely the 

 land of fried chick- 

 en; but what im- 

 presses a Northerner 

 much more are the 

 crates containing go- 

 phers for sale. 



