ADDENDUM B. 
NOTES ON THE "SALAMANDER" OF FLORIDA (GEOMYS TUZA). 
{Communicated to the author by Prof. G. Brown Goodel\ 
One of the most interesting mammals of the Southern Atlantic States 
is the species of Geomys known in Florida and Georgia as the "Salamander." 
The name of " gopher," by which the various representatives of this genus 
inhabiting the Upper Mississippi Valley are known, would seem very appro 
priate for this animal. It appears to be a corruption of the French "gaufre", 
and to refer to the manner in which the soil is honey-combed by the pouched 
rats. 
Local usage, however, has appropriated this name to a kind of land- 
tortoise, Xerobates carolinus, (Linne*) Ag., which is common in Georgia and 
Florida, and which also excavates a burrow, a habit to which, perhaps, it 
owes its name. I have never heard an explanation of the name "salamander" 
in its application to Qeomys tuza; but it occurs to me that it may allude to 
the safety enjoyed by these little animals in their subterranean abodes at the 
time of the devastating fires which sometimes consume the pine-forests. 
After such a conflagration has passed over their heads, destroying every other 
kind of life, they are seen at work among the ashes, very good types of the 
salamander of fable, which passes unharmed over, burning coals, and 
" with her touch 
Quenches the fire, though blazing ne'er so much." 
Although the species was not scientifically described until 1817, it was 
noticed by several among the earlier writers. William Bartram, an English 
naturalist, who visited the Southeastern States in 1773, speaks of a large 
ground-rat, which he observed in the vicinity of Savannah, which was more 
than twice the size of the common Norway rat, and whicli in the night threw 
out earth, forming little mounds or hillocks.* 
"Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee 
Country, the extensive territories* of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the country of the 
Chactaws. * * * By William Bartram. Dublin. 1793. p. 7. [Orig. ed. Philadelphia, 1791.1 
36 COL 
