64 LORICATA. — CROCODILID^. 



wearing down of their angles, seemed to have 

 lain in the stomach for several months. 



The female Alligator lays her eggs in hollows 

 in the sand near the margin of the water, amass- 

 ing for their reception a quantity of decaying 

 leaves and other vegetable matters, and sepa- 

 rating the different layers of eggs by layers of the 

 same materials. The fermentation of the heap, 

 when the whole is covered again with sand, is 

 supposed to aid the heat of the sun, in the pro- 

 duction of the young. Fifty or sixty eggs are 

 laid in a season, in two or three batches. The 

 mother keeps watch over the place, and after the 

 young are excluded, tends them for months after- 

 wards with much affection and care. 



Though most abundant in the southern rivers, 

 the Alligator extends far enough north to be 

 within the influence of severe winters. Buried 

 beneath the mud, however, at the bottom of his 

 river or pool, he sleeps unconscious of the frost. 

 If exposed at such times, sensation is found to be 

 completely suspended, so that the body of the 

 animal may be cut up without arousing him from 

 his torpidity. It is not, however, frozen, and a 

 few hours' warm weather, or the beams of the 

 sun, are sufficient to restore his suspended ani- 

 mation. 



Mr. Swainson's opinion of the comparative in- 

 offensiveness of these huge reptiles seems to be 

 contradicted by well-authenticated instances, in 

 which their ferocity has been fatal to man. 



Mr. Waterton thus records the fatal ferocity of 

 an allied species, the Cayman of Surinam {Alligator 

 palpebrosiis, Cuv.), which is commonly reputed to 

 be less bold than the former. " One Sunday 



