A FLORIDA TORTOISE. 
25 
A FLORIDA TORTOISE. 
HERE have been so many references to tortoises lately 
in these pages, that a few words about one of mine 
will not be out of place. It is very large, measuring 
15 in. long by 12 in. broad and 21 in. round. We 
brought it home with us from Florida in a case of palmettoes 
and other plants last July. Out there they are called “gophers,” 
are very plentiful and most destructive, cutting down and eating 
all succulent plants and young vegetables, and making deep 
burrows, like rabbit holes, all over the forest and gardens. 
Consequently, they have a bad time of it in their native land, 
and are always destroyed when found — generally chopped open 
for the fowls. Dogs devour them greedily, and will hunt them 
as they would game ; seldom, however, managing to hurt them, 
but always turning them on their backs, in which position they 
are quite helpless. 
The very morning we left Florida, my gopher was captured 
in the “squash patch” by a coloured man, and put in a box to 
await execution at a more convenient season. There I found it, 
and at the last moment popped it into a packing case of plants 
which was then in the act of being screwed up for the journey. 
We often talked of it while crossing, wondered if it would reach 
England alive, and rather reproached ourselves when we thought 
of it far down in the hold. We were much delighted on reaching 
home to find the gopher very well and lively, so much so that 
he refused to stay in the garden, and had to have his address 
painted on his back in order that he might be returned when 
found (as he often was) walking through the village or down the 
lanes. About a month after our return the tortoise surpassed 
all we had ever expected of it, and laid eight eggs ; three in our 
own garden, the rest in a neighbour’s field. They were rather 
large, with very hard, chalky shells ; quite round, and on being 
blown were found to contain an oily yolk and white. As soon as 
ever there was even a suspicion of cold weather, the gopher 
made a burrow beneath a rubbish heap, where I conclude it 
intends to spend the winter. The said burrow has a large 
entrance, and on warmer days, or if the sun be at all powerful, 
it appears at the mouth of the hole, retiring out of sight as the 
afternoon grows chilly. So far it has seemed to eat nothing but 
grass, which it does very awkwardly. Whether it will survive 
an English winter remains yet to be seen. 
W. M. E. Fowler. 
Squirrel killed by Cat (p. 19). — In India, where the gray squirrels run 
about the verandahs of the houses, and often enter the rooms as the doors and 
windows are left open, it is not at all an unusual sight to see the cat carrying off a 
squirrel which it has captured. 
D. W. Laughton, Major-General 
