The American Alligator 9 



neighborhood of the water. The pile is compacted by 

 crawling back and forth over it. In this nest, the eggs, 

 which average about thirty in number, are laid. The 

 time of laying corresponds closely to the month of 

 June, in Florida at least, and the hatching process 

 occupies about eight weeks. The moist vegetation of 

 the nest serves to prevent the drying out of the eggs 

 and also protects them from the daily fluctuation in 

 temperature. Possibly the heat from the decomposi- 

 tion of the materials of the nest aids the development 

 of the eggs. 



The mother alligator is said to guard the nest or 

 at least to remain in its neighborhood during the de- 

 velopment of the eggs, and at the time of hatching, she 

 is supposed to assist the escape of the young by open- 

 ing the nest. Unless this is the case, it is difficult to 

 see how the young can force their way out, the mass 

 of vegetation around the eggs having become very 

 compact during the intervening time. There are no 

 direct observations, of this habit, known to the writer. 

 It is made very probable, however, by the existance of 

 similar habits in the South American caimans and in 

 the Nile Crocodile. It is well established that the 

 latter animal digs the eggs out of the sand in which 

 they are laid when the young are about to hatch, being 

 notified at the proper time by the loud calling of the 

 young crocodiles within the eggs, whose voices may be 

 heard at a distance of several yards. Unhatched alli- 

 gators also are able to make themselves heard at a con- 

 siderable distance. 



The newly hatched young are about eight inches 

 long, while the average egg is about three inches in 

 length. Their growth is fairly rapid. Specimens 

 raised at the New York Zoological Society's Reptile 

 House reached a length of five and a half feet, and a 

 weight of fifty pounds, at the age of five years. State- 

 ments as to the extremely slow growth of alligators 



[as] 



