ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 151 
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CAROLINA ALLIGATOR. 
“Nests were found in considerable numbers as early as June 
8th, but no eggs were laid in any of them until the end of the 
dry period, which occurred nearly two weeks later. Almost im- 
mediately after the occurrence of the rains that filled up the 
swamps, eggs were deposited in all of the nests at about the same 
time. From the fact that all of these completed nests had stood 
for so long a time without eggs, and from the fact that all of the 
eggs from these nests contained embryos in a well advanced state 
of development, it seemed evident that the egg-laying had been 
delayed by the unusually dry weather. Eggs taken direct from 
the oviducts of the alligator that was killed at this time also con- 
tained embryos that had already passed through the earlier 
stages of development. Thus it was that the earlier stages of 
development were not obtained during this summer.” 
On August 12, 1900, the writer discovered an alligator’s nest 
close to a causeway (an ancient rice ditch) in Hampton County, 
South Carolina. It consisted of a mound of decomposing veg- 
etable matter about five feet in diameter and three feet high, half 
hidden among some bushes at the border of a pool. At one side of 
the nest, inward toward its center fully two feet, protruded two 
