32 BARBOUR — CHINESE ALLIGATOR [ P Vol. E Vlil ' 



to Florida alligators of the same size. The body bands are quite 

 similar, the yellow stripes being, in the Chinese, somewhat wider 

 on the tail and fewer in number, eight as against ten or eleven, 

 while on the body there are usually only five bands instead of 

 six. The head is more yellow, with somewhat bolder, dark mark- 

 ings, but the principal color blotches may be similarly identified 

 in both forms. The sides of the head and lips in the oriental 

 species are also rather more boldly clouded than in our familiar 

 form. 



In external features the Wulsin series exhibits very little vari- 

 ation. The six large nuchal scutes are very constant, the first 

 pair heavily developed. The long reversed crescentic series of 

 post-occipital plates is present in every individual, and our series 

 shows no such variability as is mentioned by Boulenger (1. c, 

 pp. 619-620). The markings are gradually lost with age, until the 

 creatures become dull, muddy brown, probably blackish in life, 

 like our alligators. Boulenger was the first to point out the 

 Jacar6-likc character of the bony ossicle in the eyelid and the 

 ossification present in the ventral shields. These characters, 

 taken in connection with the conspicuous divergence in squama- 

 tion, make the species A. sinensis Farvel markedly distinct. 

 The important point to be remembered, however, is that, not- 

 withstanding these structural differences, obviously fundamental 

 and betokening a considerable period of isolation of the stocks, 

 the style of coloration is almost the same. The color pattern is 

 vastly more conservative and immutable than many other so- 

 matic features. It is more and more evident that the bony struc- 

 tures are more directly affected by the creatures' habits and 

 environment, and by some evolutionary process or other are 

 subject to radical change in relatively short geological periods of 

 time. The change of form of skull and its relation to feeding 

 habits, pointed out by H. Lang for African squirrels, is a case in 

 point. What may be the evolutionary process which activates 

 these changes, or accentuates them, is hardly worth guessing. 

 Alexander Agassiz never spoke more truly than when he said 



