24 The Alligator and Its Allies 



sibly fifty degrees or more ; while in the center of a 

 great mass of damp vegetation they are probably 

 kept at a fairly constant temperature. Unfortu- 

 nately no thermometer was taken to the swamps, 

 so that no records of the temperatures of alligator 

 nests were obtained, but it was frequently noticed 

 that when, at night or very early in the morning, 

 the hand was thrust deep into the center of an 

 alligator's nest the vegetation felt decidedly warm, 

 while in the middle of the day, when the surround- 

 ing air was, perhaps, fifty degrees (Fahrenheit) 

 warmer than it was just before sunrise, the inside 

 of the same nest felt quite cool. It is probable, 

 then, that the conditions of temperature and 

 moisture in the center of the nest are quite uniform. 

 One lot of eggs that had been sent from Florida to 

 Maryland continued to incubate in an apparently 

 normal way when packed in a box of damp saw- 

 dust, the temperature of which was about 80 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit. Another lot of eggs continued 

 to incubate, until several young alligators were 

 hatched, in the ordinary incubator, at a tempera- 

 ture of about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. 1 



The fact that eggs taken directly from the ovi- 

 ducts of the cold-blooded alligator contain embryos 

 of considerable size seems to indicate that no such 

 elevation of temperature as is necessary with avian 

 eggs is necessary with the eggs of the alligator. 



1 Reese, A. M., "Artificial Incubation of Alligator Eggs," Amer. 

 Nat., March, 1901, pp. 193-195. 



