2374 CROCODILES, DINOSAURS, AND FLYING DRAGONS 



ton, capture the caiman by means of a baited hook and line, the former being com- 

 posed of several pieces of wood, which become fixed in the creature's jaws. 

 Waterton's account of his ride on the back of a caiman thus caught is probably 

 familiar to many of our readers; and we have read of a similar feat being accom- 

 plished elsewhere. The eggs of the great caiman, which are about the size of those 

 of a turkey, are said to be not unfrequently deposited in a heap of dry leaves, and 

 are much sought ^fter as food by the natives of Dutch Guiana. 



The early Spanish settlers of South America on meeting with a 

 gigantic lizard-like reptile naturally applied to it the name of una 

 lagarta, which is the Spanish term for a lizard; and this as naturally became in 

 course of time corrupted into alligator. It would appear, indeed, that this name 

 was first given to the caiman, to which in strict propriety it should therefore be- 

 long; but now, by the common consent of naturalists, it is taken as the special 

 designation of the members of the present genus. The alligators, as thus restricted, 

 are represented by one species from North America, and by a second from the 

 Yang-tse-Kiang in China; while there is also a third and imperfectly -known 

 species, of which the inhabitat is as yet undetermined. The alligators differ from 

 the caimans merely by the forward prolongation of the nasal bones of the skull, so 

 as to divide the aperture of the nostrils into two equal moieties, by the want of 

 articulation between the bony plates of the back, and the absence or extreme thin- 

 ness of those on the lower surface of the body. Curiously enough, the Chinese 

 alligator {Alligator sinensis), which is a comparatively small species, is the one 

 coming nearest in structure to the caimans; this approximation being shown by the 

 great development of bone in the upper eyelid, and the presence of thin bony plates 

 on the lower surface of the body. The latter are, however, placed wide apart, 

 without any mutual articulation or overlapping. In this species the front toes are 

 free, the number of plates on the neck is usually six, although these may be re- 

 duced to four, while generally there are but six plates in the widest of the trans- 

 verse rows on the back. The number of teeth in the upper jaw is seventeen or 

 eighteen, against eighteen or nineteen in the lower. In color the upper parts are 

 greenish black, speckled and streaked with yellow, while the under parts are gray- 

 ish. In the much larger Mississippi alligator {A. mississippiensis} , of which the 

 dimensions exceed those of the great caiman, the front toes are webbed, there are 

 but four plates on the neck, and there are always eight plates in the widest of the 

 transverse rows of the back. There are nineteen or twenty teeth on each side of 

 both jaws; and in the adult the color is dark green or blackish above, and yellowish 

 below. The range of this species embraces the Southeastern United States, from 

 the Rio Grande to North Carolina. The third species {A. helois} is a small one, 

 distinguished by the slight compression of the tail, which is scarcely crested. 



Our knowledge of the Chinese alligator (which was first made known to science 

 in 1879) in the living state is mainly or entirely derived from specimens exhibited 

 in the menageries of Europe; while the accounts of the mode of life of the Missis- 

 sippi species are by no means so full as is desirable. It appears, however, that the 

 latter spends the greater part of its time in the water, where its main diet is formed 

 by fish, although it will seize and drag such sheep, goats, dogs, deer, or horses, 



