EXISTING CROCODILES 



2375 



that, while drinking, come within reach of its terrible jaws. During flood time, 

 when many of the lowlands are under water, the alligators leave the rivers to feed 

 on the fish which abound in the flooded districts; returning to their old quarters 

 with the subsidence of the inundations. To such flooded lowlands, writes Audubon, 

 " in the early part of the autumn, when the heat of a southern sun has evaporated 

 much of the water, the squatter, the hunter, the planter, all go in search of .sport. 

 "The lakes then are about two feet deep, having a fine sandy bottom. . . . The 



MISSISSIPPI ALLIGATOR. 

 (One-twentieth natural size.) 



long, narrow Indian canoe, kept to hunt these lakes, and taken into them during 

 the freshet, is soon launched; and the party seated in the bottom is paddled, or poled, 

 to look for water game. Then, on a sudden, hundreds of alligators are seen dis- 

 persed all over the lake; their head and all the upper part of their body floating like 

 a log, and in many instances so resembling one, that it requires to be accustomed to 

 see them to know the distinction. Millions of the large wood ibis are seen wading 

 through the water, muddling it up, and striking deadly blows with their bills on 



