THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 27 



gins, and on approach of cold weather going back to them 

 for the Winter. 



I have always been familiar with 'gator holes, and the 

 underground dens that are used as a retreat during cold 

 weather by all large alligators and by the female as a refuge 

 for themselves and young during the first Winter and 

 Spring after the young are hatched. 



It has been my good fortune on a number of occasions 

 to observe alligators while building their dens, or "holes" 

 as they are commonly called. 



The first time I ever saw an alligator at work on its den 

 was in late September of 1894; I had gone out to shoot 

 Blue-winged Teal, which were then quite plentiful in the 

 shallow bayous and marshes surrounding Avery Island. 

 The tide was running out, and as I paddled my pirogue up 

 a stream known as Alligator Bayou, I noticed muddy water 

 coming out of a small side bayou making in from the south 

 bank; thinking that a flock of ducks were feeding in this 

 stream and stirring up the mud, I paddled very cautiously 

 up it, it being about twenty feet wide and with about eight- 

 een inches of water in it. Each time I rounded a point I 

 picked up my gun expecting to see ducks ahead. I pro- 

 ceeded in this way perhaps six or eight hundred feet, when 

 on rounding a point I saw the water in commotion and 

 swirling, about fifty feet ahead of me. I stopped my boat 

 against the bank, not knowing what was causing this dis- 

 turbance, but thought it was a school of large fish. As I 

 watched I saw the back and tail of an alligator come to the 

 surface, the tail waving slowly, but with great power from 

 side to side, and then as I watched, it slowly disappeared 

 into and under the marshy bank, and the commotion in the 

 water ceased. I then realized that an alligator was digging 

 a hole for its winter home. After the alligator had dis- 

 appeared, I quietly paddled my boat into a little slough 

 just below and almost opposite to where the alligator had 

 gone under the bank, and waited developments. I could 



