Chap. III. GENERA OF TESTUDININA. 447 



Xi:r(ii!.vtks caholims, Af/} This species extends froia South Carolina, thixninh 

 all the Southern States as far as Texas, in the southern parts of which it is 

 rejilaced by the next species. Its eggs are represented PL 7, fig. 28 and 29. I 

 am indebted to Dr. Th. S. Savage for interesting observations upon the habits of this 

 specie.s. " The domicile of the Gopher consists of an excavation, of a size at the 

 mouth just sufficient to admit the animal, and runs in an oblique direction to the 

 depth of aI)out four feet. From the entrance it enlarges and expands to a con- 

 sideral)le extent, resembling in its interior outline a vessel of globular shape. Being 

 concealed, it is sometimes a dangerous cavity to horsemen at full .speed. It is in- 

 habited but by one pair. When the dew is on the grass, or it has rained, the 

 animal emerges in search of food, which it seems to require daily. It feeds on 

 grass and succulent vegetables of various kind.s. They eat also the gums that 

 exude from trees, especially the inspissated sap of the pine, as seen often at the 

 lower part of the stem and exposed roots of that tree. This they will cat also 

 in a state of confinement. Their eggs are not laid in their domicile, but in a 

 separate cavity near its 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 iu 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 fi)ur weeks. The month iu which they lay is June. They 

 are long-lived, and attain the size of fourteen to eighteen inches across the cara- 

 pace. To capture the Gopher, a deep hole is dug at the mouth of thcli- domi- 

 cile, into which they flxll as they emerge for food." 



Xerobatks isKULAXDiERi, A(/. The A'oung is represented PI. 3, fig. 17-10. It 

 has a small yellow dot in the centre of the median and costal scales ; the mar- 

 ginal scales are only edged with yellow. The sternum is narrower and more 

 projecting in IVont than that of X. carolinus ; in the adult it is even forked. 

 Behind it is broader and more turned downward. The centre of the scales 

 remains granular for a longer tinu\ The gland of the lower jaw is larger and 

 more prominent. This .species is .smaller than the preceding, and limited to .■south- 

 ern Texas and Mexico. All the specimens that T have seen were forwarded to 

 me for examination by the Smithsonian Institution. They were collected by the 

 late Mr. Berlandier, a zealous French naturalist, to whom we are indebted for 

 much of what we know of the natin-al history of northern Mexico. 



' This is tlie Testiiilo Carolina of Liiiiuvus, Testiido Polyphemus of Daudin. 



