THE CROCODILIANS 85 



5 feet in diameter and 2 feet high. It contained 

 38 hard-shelled, white eggs S 1 /^ inches long and 1% 

 inches in diameter. The eggs were collected during the 

 middle of August and began hatching in the first week 

 of October. They were deposited in two neat layers 

 at the very bottom of the mound. As we dug down to 

 them the rotting vegetable mass scooped together by 

 the parent was found to be producing a considerable 

 heat. Of the parent there was no sign during any part 

 of the work of digging out the eggs and packing the 

 material composing the mound into a number of bags 

 to be shipped North. 



Many have been the theories concerning the growth of 

 the alligator. The general supposition points to a re- 

 markably long period in attaining maturity. That such 

 is by no means the case has been demonstrated by a large 

 number of young alligators under the writer's charge. 

 These outgrow one tank after another within a few 

 years. It only takes four years for an alligator from 

 the time of hatching to grow fully large enough to have 

 a commercially valuable hide. The increase in size of 

 a representative specimen hatching from one of the 

 eggs described is given as an average example of an 

 alligator's growth. 



Oct. 1900 — Hatched Length 8 inches; weight 1% oz. 



Oct. 1901 Length 18 inches; weight 9y 4 oz. 



Aug. 1902 Length 23 inches ; weight 3 lbs. 



Mar. 1903 Length 45 inches ; weight 14 lbs. 



Oct. 1905 Length 64 inches ; weight 50 lbs. 



Oct. 1906 Length 72 inches; weight 72 lbs. 



An alligator 6 feet, 11 inches long received at the 

 reptile house in 1899, in October, had increased to a 

 length of 11 feet, 6 inches in October of 1905. 



It is remarkable that the only other species of the 

 genus Alligator occurs in China, along the Yang-tse- 



