168 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



from the Spanish, although the natives of the Amazon 

 region know it as a jacare or yaoare. The black caiman 

 of the Guianas and Brazil reach a length of 20 feet, but the 

 rough-backed caiman of the upper Amazon vary from 4 

 to 6 feet in length at maturity. 



The alligator is found only in the southern states of 

 our country, but a small species, about 6 feet in length, is 

 found in China. It is a greenish-black in color, dotted 

 with yellow, and even scientists agree that it is more than 

 strange that the nearest living relative of the Mississippi 

 river alligator should live in the Yangtse-Kiang river, in 

 China. 



Where the Alligator Gets Its Name 



The reptile has been given the scientific name of Alli- 

 gator Mississippiensis and is the form that occurs in Louis- 

 ana, where it is of quite some value to commerce on ac- 

 count of its hide. The name alligator in its early form, 

 alligarta, was derived from the Spanish El lagarto, mean- 

 ing "the lizard.'* 



While the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of South and 

 Central America called the alligator a lizard, and its present 

 popular and scientific name is derived from that source, it 

 is very interesting to learn that the early Spaniards in- 

 habiting Louisiana called this characteristic inhabitant of 

 our swamps and marshes a cocodrile, pronounced ko-ko- 

 dree', which is, probably, merely a Spanish imitation of the 

 name given the alligator by Iberville's Frenchmen. This 

 Spanish pronunciation is responsible for the many Cocodrie 

 bayous and the Cocodrie lakes found in St. Landry, Evange- 

 line, and Rapides parishes. 



The first French settlers, likening our reptile to the 

 crocodile of the Old World, called it by this name, but they 

 pronounced it, according to their own tongue, viz. : kro-ko- 

 deeV , and, as such, is the alligator named by the French- 

 speaking inhabitants of the Louisiana lowlands today. 



The Ofo Indians of the delta of the Yazoo called the 

 alligator akshoti; the Biloxi called the saurian nuxwoti, 



