CROCODILES. 



59 



The Alligator is believed to be very long-lived, 

 as its growth is very slow, and its ultimate bulk 

 gigantic. 



The species with whose economy we are best 

 acquainted is that of which we have already 

 spoken as inliabiting the rivers that flow through 

 the Southern United States, and the dismal 

 swamps that border them. In Louisiana and 

 Florida, this Alligator {Alligator lucius, Cuv.) is 

 particularly abundant, from the low and sw^ampy 

 character of those regions conjoined with their 

 hot climate. The snout of this species is flattened 

 above, and slightly turned upwards; the sides of 

 the head are nearly parallel, and the nose forms 

 a regular curve. The rim of the eye-orbits is 

 large and protuberant, but not united by a trans- 

 verse crest. The colour is a deep greenish-brown 

 above, and pale yellow beneath ; the sides are 

 marked with these colours in alternate bands. 



Some interesting details of the history of the 

 Alligator are given wdth much graphic power 

 by the eminent American ornithologist, Mr. 

 Audubon. 



" In Louisiana," says this accurate observer, 

 " all our lagoons, bayous, creeks, ponds, lakes, 

 and rivers, are well stocked with them ; they are 

 found wherever there is a suflicient quantity of 

 water to hide them, or to furnish them with food; 

 and they continue thus, in great numbers, as 

 high as the mouth of the Arkansas river, extend- 

 ing east to North Carolina, and as far west as I 

 have penetrated. On the Red river, before it 

 was navigated by steam-vessels, they were so 

 extremely abundant, that to see hundreds at a 

 time along the shores, or on the immense rafts of 



