8 Field Museum of Natural History 



fer from crocodiles, which are much more active and 

 dangerous animals, although the American crocodile 

 is less to be feared than the African or East Indian 

 species. 



Stones and pine knots are frequently found in the 

 stomachs of alligators. Whether or not they are of 

 any use in the digestion of food, like the pebbles in the 

 gizard of the bird, is unknown. Many extinct reptiles 

 are known to have made similar collections of "stomach 

 stones." The explanation of the hunters in the south, 

 that they prevent the walls of the otherwise empty 

 stomach from adhering during hibernation, is of 

 course fanciful. Nearly everywhere in the United 

 States, alligators hibernate for three or four months 

 during the coldest part of the year. They bury them- 

 selves in the mud of the water-holes or swamps in 

 which they live, and remain dormant until the approach 

 of spring brings them out. In some tropical countries 

 where the climate becomes too dry for the native 

 crocodilians, they "aestivate" during a few months of 

 the hottest and dryest season, burying themselves in 

 mud in the same way. 



After emergence from their winter sleep, alli- 

 gators feed for a time before the beginning of the 

 breeding season, which occupies the late spring 

 months. During the mating season the bellowing of the 

 males is heard, and from the frequent mutilations of 

 large specimens, it is presumed that fighting takes 

 place between them at this time. The voices may be 

 heard at a distance of a mile or more. A strong musky 

 odor is discharged from the scent-glands at the sides 

 of the throat when they are excited. 



The female alligator prepares a nest for her eggs 

 by biting off and carrying together a mass of vegeta- 

 tion such as grass, cat-tails and rushes. In this way 

 a rounded or conical pile of trash is built up, not unlike 

 a muskrat's nest, but placed at the edge or in the 



[32] 



