The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17540192433)

Title: The American Museum journal

Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)

Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)

Authors: American Museum of Natural History

Subjects: Natural history

Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History

Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Text Appearing Before Image:

Notes on Florida Turtles By T H E O D O K E ROOSEVELT Jf'rifti'ii ill iniii)) iiriir I'liiild (fiinlii mi tlic (iulf of Mcjiio DURIJv^G the last week of March, I 191T, I spent a few days near Punta Gorda, Florida, on a trip after devilfish, being the guest of Mr. Russell J. Coles, whose piece on devilfish in this magazine^ was the very best thing of its kind that has ever been written. One day we visited an island which, while I was President, was made into a bird reserve 2 on the initiative of the 1 See American Museum Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 4. - One of several small islands in Charlotte Har- bor established as government reservations during Roosevelt's administration. The first Federal bird reservation in the United States was made by Roosevelt through his authority as President. Somewhat later a law was passed by Congress vesting in the President power to set aside govern- ment lands as bird reserves. No less than fifty-one such reservations were established during Roose- velt's tenure of office, covering many parts of the United States from Florida to Oregon. ^ It chances that Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, of the scientific staff of the American Museum of Natural History, has given considerable field study to the gopher tortoise (Testudo polyphemus) of Florida. It is therefore a pleasure to append to Colonel Roosevelt's valuable record of observations a brief article covering some of Dr. Fisher's personal experiences with this species.—The Editor. Audubon Society. We forced our way through the thick belt of mangroves which fringed the island to the smaller area of higher land inside, on which grew Florida figs, pawpaws, and one or two other kinds of tropical trees. Here to our surprise we came across a bur- row. I had no idea what creature had made it, but Captain Jack McCann, a native Florida fisherman who was with us, at once said it was the burrow of a gopher. My book knowledge enabled me to realize that he was speaking, not of the burrowing pouched rat—which in Florida is rather absurdly called "salamander"—but of a big land tor- toise. The burrow was shallow and we speedily dug out the occupant. It was a fairly large specimen, weighing IIV2

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The gopher tortoise digs its own burrow, whicli niuy be twenty to thirty feet in length. The sand is heaped at the doorway, and the burrow of course just fits the turtle which has done the digging, the floor being shaped by the flat plastron and the roof arched in just the curve of the carapace. The "gopher snake" (SpUotes corals couperi) goes in and out the burrows, no doubt on friendly terms with the own- ers, and the "gopher frog" (Ra7ia cBsopus), also on friendly terms, sits in the doorway at dusk and hides in the retreat if an enemy appears. One of the first acts of the baby gopher tortoise after coming from its egg is to dig itself a burrow, a miniature of its parent's home 289

норы гофер полифем Интернет-архив, документ, американский музей, 17 амер. Американский музейный журнал 1917 г. книжные иллюстрации орнитология птицы зоологическая иллюстрация естественная история Американский музей естественной истории змеи изображения из интернет-архива Флорида

1917

American Museum of Natural History Library

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