NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 323 



ways ; whence the notion of throwing them out, when in 

 pursuit, by doubUng back. There is a story of an English- 

 man running before a large alligator which came out of 

 the lake Nicaragua, and was gaining on him fast. He 

 would have been soon overtaken by his grim pursuer, 

 had not some Spaniards called to him to run in a circle, 

 and baffle it by compelling it to resort to the laborious 

 operation of turning, if it should be bent on continuing 

 the pursuit. That an alligator can bend its body and 

 tail so as to bring head and tail together I have proved. 

 I took an alligator between five and six feet long, at the 

 Zoological Garden in the Kegent's Park, by the tail, and 

 lifted it off its legs, when, by what certainly appeared to 

 be a violent effort, it bent its body so as to reach my 

 hand with its head. I had a glove on, but the reptile 

 bit it through, without, however, wounding my hand. 



The abdominal ribs, which form a sort of plastron for 

 the protection of the belly, in addition to the false and 

 ordinary ribs, do not reach up to the spine, and seem to 



the water, and below the surface as well as above, making an im- 

 pression on the fruit but not breaking it. When below the surface 

 he would let it out of his mouth, and then rise after it as it floated 

 to the top, trying his young teeth upon it. At last his vegetable 

 appetite appeared to be roused. He brought it to one of the 

 steps of his bath, and, reposing, set to work upon it in good 

 earnest, with all but his head still in the water, succeeded in 

 breaking it, bit off pieces, chewed them with a slow, champing, 

 snapping motion, without any lateral grinding, and swallowed 

 them. He had previously been offered green maize, which he 

 mumbled, broke, and played Avith, but did not eat, so far as I 

 could see. Boiled carrots and kohl-riibe were more to his taste j 

 and he had eaten freely of them before the experiment of the raw 

 vegetable marrow was made. All this looks like a healthy state 

 of stomach, and I cannot help hoping that his careful attendants 

 will bring him through the winter. He was rather fractious at 

 first on being left, but is now reconciled to the absence of his kind 

 Hamet at night, and sleeps by himself very comfortably. In short, 

 his conduct entirely justifies the epithet conferred on him by Mr., 

 Dickens, who has immortalized ' The Good Hippopotamus/ 



