ALLIGATORS I HAVE KNOWN 



487 



three, evidently of last year's brood, two 

 of them showing np within a few feet 

 of the boat. I tried to catch them with 

 our short-handled landing net, but the 

 coarse stems of the marsh grass inter- 

 fered with the success of the operation. 

 These alligators we estimated to l)e from 

 eighteen to twenty inches long. 



One day, in another creek tributary 

 to New Eiver, while resting from cast- 

 ing for black bass, we came across sev- 

 eral alligators that I judged to be two- 

 year-olds. They appeared (some being 

 clearly viewed at full length) to mea- 

 sure from twenty-four to thirty inches. 

 We followed one about in the open wa- 

 ter for several minutes, and I amused 

 myself with casting at him with a buck- 

 tail bait. Finally, I hooked him in the 

 tail, and reeled him alongside the canoe, 

 when my wife slipped the landing net 

 under him. But, a flirt of the tail, and 

 his forepaws on the bow of the net, 

 freed him just in time. 



I have examined the stomachs of 

 quite a number of specimens, with some 

 interesting results. The information so 

 gathered would indicate snakes, terra- 

 pins, and crawfish as the three chief ar- 

 ticles of diet of the alligator in eastern 

 North Carolina, with water birds and 

 fish following. I once took a whole 

 black duck from the stomach of a me- 

 dium-sized specimen, and I have often 

 found remains of herons, particularly 

 in those frequenting a certain body of 

 water that accommodates a fair-sized 

 nesting colony of egrets and other 

 herons. 



In Great Lake alligators always hang 

 around the colony of Florida cormo- 

 rants which have nested along its shores 

 for many years, this being the only col- 

 ony of these birds known north of Flor- 

 ida, I think. I once saw an alligator 



catch and swallow— one can hardly use 

 the word "eat" to describe the operation 

 — an almost full-grown young cormo- 

 rant, while swimming, and I believe that 

 T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary of the 

 National Association of x4.udubon Soci- 

 eties, had a like experience in the same 

 waters. (I wish I dare tell of the turn- 

 when Pearson paddled me within shot 

 of a large and fast-swimming alligator, 

 and what he said when I missed it!) 



The usual assortment of gravel and 

 pieces of wood almost always is present 

 in the alligator's stomach, and once 

 several pieces of brick were found. 

 From the stomachs of two specimens 

 collected in Lake Ellis, a famous duck- 

 shooting ground on which many thou- 

 sands of cartridges have been expended, 

 the brass bases of shotgun shells were 

 taken, one stomach containing three 

 and the other four. But I never have 

 found any diamond rings, gold watches, 

 or other articles of intrinsic value. 



Fish seem to form but a small part 

 of an alligator's diet : in fact, I remem- 

 ber finding fish remains in the stomachs 

 of only two specimens. One of these con- 

 tained a grindle (bowfin, Amia calva). 

 and the partly digested remains in the 

 other indicated a sucker of some kind. 



On one occasion I was coming out to 

 civilization from a surf-fishing trip to 

 Topsail Inlet when the information of 

 the killing of a crocodile was given to 

 me. "Yes, sir, it sure was a crocodile, 

 'cause its upper jaw worked," the 

 "working" of the upper or lower jaw 

 identifying the animal as a crocodile or 

 an alligator, according to local legend. 

 And I had some difficulty in convincing 

 my fishermen friends that their "croco- 

 dile" could not have been other than 

 our old friend. Alligator mississippi- 

 ensis. 



