REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS OF TEXAS 



REPTILIA 



CROCODILINI 



CROCODILID^ 



1. Alligator missippiensis Daudin. Alligator. 



At one time, the range of the alligator included 

 the whole eastern half of the State, but it is now 

 principally confined to the extreme eastern and south- 

 eastern counties bordering Louisiana and the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Old settlers claim that in former years 

 this saurian was abundant all along the Brazos River, 

 even to its sources, and that there is an Indian tradi- 

 tion to the effect that the animals were driven out 

 of Northwestern Texas on account of a long-contin- 

 ued drouth and came overland in immense droves, 

 headed in the direction of the Gulf coast. That the 

 alligator is an old inhabitant of East-Central Texas 

 is indicated by numerous remains occurring in 

 Pleistocene deposits in McLennan and adjoining 

 counties. While it is not likely that our modern rep- 

 tile was a contemporary of the Columbian elephant, 

 the Texas camel, the sabre-toothed tiger and the giant 

 edentates, yet its remains are found together in the 

 same gravel deposits. 



Within the past five years, five alligators have been 

 captured along the Brazos river from Waco to a 

 point about ten miles south. Four of these were from 

 two and one-half to four feet in length, while the fifth 

 was a trifle more than eight feet. Only a few years 

 ago an eight-foot specimen was captured in the 

 Trinity bottoms, only a few miles from Dallas. In 

 some of the forest-enclosed lakes of Eastern Texas, 

 in Liberty, San Jacinto and the adjoining counties, 

 large, solitary alligator bulls are claimed to still hold 

 their own against all comers. 



Dr. Mearns, in his work on the Mammals of the 

 Mexican Boundary, states that the alligator has once 

 been taken about twenty miles south of Fort Clark, 



