64 THE VIVARIUM. 
—or, at any rate, large for a captive one—but so gentle that it 
would allow its keeper to mount its back, and I understand the 
keeper had been photographed in that position. This Alligator, 
which is now dead, was only 1ft. long when it made its first 
appearance in the Reptile House, but in about nine years it had 
grown to a little more than 11ft. in length, and was in other 
respects a very well-developed animal. I have seen it stated 
somewhere, that if a young Alligator or Crocodile be kept in a 
small tank, it will not grow much, if at all. 
My own Alligator knows me quite well. At my approach he 
climbs upon the platform at the side of his tank, and makes a 
curious low call to attract my attention. He kisses loudly at 
strangers, and when he is angry he gives a kind of grunt-like 
bark. Occasionally he produces a noise which may be likened to 
a roar; indeed, a full-grown Alligator is no mean rival of the lion 
in the matter of roaring. Crocodiles, I think, do not roar. | 
The temperature of the water of an Alligator’s tank should 
not, as a rule, be allowed to sink lower than 75deg. Fahr., nor to 
rise above 85deg. In very hot weather, however, it is not 
necessary to heat it artificially, provided that the tank be situated 
in a greenhouse or some such building. 
A small Crocodile or Alligator may be kept in a Vivarium like 
that represented by Fig. 10 or by Fig. 14. In the latter case, a 
small lamp must be placed beneath the tank itself. If the lamp 
be allowed to go out in cold weather the Reptile will become more 
or less torpid, and will not feed. Once when I was suffer- 
ing from an attack of the common enemy, influenza, the 
gardener, who during my illness was caring for the animals, sent 
word to me one day that the Alligator was ill and would not eat. 
As soon as I could I went to see what was the matter, and found 
that the water in the tank had been allowed to get so low that it 
could not circulate with the water in the little outer boiler, and 
the poor beast was in a state of torpidity through cold, the 
weather being very bitter at the time. Directly the water was 
restored to its proper temperature, the Reptile recovered its 
liveliness and his appetite. 
The tank should be cleared out as often as necessary—about 
once a week perhaps—by means of the exit-pipe affixed for the 
