46 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



General distribution: Coastal Plain from Beaufort, 

 North Carolina to central Florida and the Mississippi 

 alluvial plain. 



Alabama records : None. 



GENUS: GOPHERUS, Rafinesque. 



GOPHERUS POLYPHEMUS (Daudin) Stejneger 



{Testudo polyphemus, Daudin) 



Gopher, Land Turtle 



Type locality: Savanna and Altamaha Rivers, Geor- 

 gia. 



General distribution : Sandy, long-leaf pine forests 

 from southern South Carolina to Florida and Texas, and 

 perhaps north into southern Arkansas. 



Alabama records: Around Grand Bay the Gopher is 

 common on dry sandy banks covered with scrub oaks, it 

 is typically terrestrial, and lives on fruits and herbage.* 



FAMILY: CHELONIIDAE 



GENUS: CHELONIA, Latreille. 



CHELONIA MYDAS (Linne) Schweigger 

 Green Sea-Turtle 



Type locality : Ascension Islands, etc. 



General distribution : Atlantic Ocean ; Gulf of Mexi- 

 co ; occasionally as far noi'th as Massachusetts. 



Alabama records : Mobile Bay, and Mississippi Sound 

 (J. A. Joullian). 



GENUS: ERETMOCHELYS, Fitzinger. 



ERETMOCHELYS IMBRICATA (Linne) Agassiz 

 (Cfielonia imbricata) 

 Hawk's-Bill Turtle 



Type locality : American seas. 



General distribution : Similar to the preceding. 



*It is sometimes eaten, especially by negroes, in West Florida, 

 where it is much commoner than in Alabama. I have no definite 

 recollection of seeing it in Alabama at all, or anywhere else west 

 of Florida. For an interesting account of its habits see H. G. 

 Hubbard in Science for Augu;5t 4, 1893. R. M. H. 



