104 A NATURE WOOING. 



of a dry land terrapin or tortoise, known as the 

 "gopher," Xerobates polyphemus Daudin. This is a 

 large, thick-bodied turtle, whose fore-limbs are espe- 

 cially strong on account of the centuries of subter- 

 ranean digging in which its ancestors have engaged. 

 In color it is an ash brown above, and yellow below. 

 The head is darker, sometimes being almost black. 

 Recent writers place its maximum size at fifteen 

 inches, but Bartram, writing in 1Y91, said that "when 

 arrived at its greatest magnitude, the upper shell is 

 near eighteen inches in length and ten to twelve 

 inches in breadth. 77 It is possible that the size has de- 

 creased since he wrote. The few specimens which I 

 have seen were less than a foot in length. 



The gopher is herbivorous and both nocturnal and 

 diurnal, being often seen feeding in the afternoon. 

 Like the common northern box turtle, Cistudo Caro- 

 lina L,, when disturbed it retracts its head and feet 

 and hisses like a goose ; but seldom snaps or attempts 

 to bite. Both Bartram and Holbrook state that its 

 flesh is used for food, but this does not seem to be the 

 case in Florida. However, they and other turtles are 

 often chopped up and fed to hogs and poultry. It is a 

 common belief that the burrows of the gopher extend 

 down to ground water, but Mr. H. GL Hubbard, who 

 excavated several of them, says that the galleries are 

 eighteen or twenty feet long in the sandy ridges re- 

 mote from water, and that they descend in a straight 

 course at an angle of 35, and terminate abruptly, 



