38 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



or on the bank of the den. Alligators in this climate do 

 not hibernate for any great period. They go into winter 

 quarters, as it were, early in October and at that time cease 

 taking food of any kind. They keep in their dens in cold 

 weather; that is, when the air is colder than the water. 

 When the air is warmer than the water, they come out of 

 their dens and spend the bright part of the day on the bank 

 in the sun, and even if the sun is not shining, if the air is 

 warmer than the water, they spend considerable time on the 

 bank. They do not, however, move away from their dens 

 until the last days of March or early April, and an old 

 alligator will not take food from the time it goes into its 

 den until it leaves it. 



It is generally supposed, and is so stated by writers who 

 have described this phase of the alligator's life, that dur- 

 ing hibernation they stay buried in the mud. This how- 

 ever, is not a fact. Alligators who have built wintering 

 places underground have at some point in their dens, one 

 or more small holes opened through to the surface. In 

 these small openings, which may be only a few inches 

 across, they poke their noses at irregular intervals in order 

 to get fresh air. No matter what the temperature is out- 

 side, an alligator always puts his nose to the surface to 

 breathe, and does not remain completely dormant for any 

 great length of time. Sometimes an alligator's den 

 especially in soft ground will be as much as forty to sixty 

 feet long or longer, with one or more branches and out- 

 lets. These are dens that have been dug by large old indi- 

 viduals who seem to be especially weary and make their dens 

 of this size in order to have more than one exit in case they 

 wish to get out without using the main exit. 



Before the alligators were destroyed to any large extent, 

 in the tide-water streams of Louisiana, anyone going along 

 a stream near the bank when the tide was very low could 

 see the openings to alligators' dens dug under the banks of 

 the streams, as the tops of the openings of the dens are 



