64 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



The adult female alligator is much smaller than the male. 

 The largest female I have ever seen measured nine feet, 

 one and one-half inches, and weighed 163^ pounds. I have 

 never heard of one larger. The next largest was eight feet, 

 ten inches, and I have measured many that were a full eight 

 feet and one or two inches. In late years I have caught, 

 measured and liberated many female alligators at their 

 nests to try to determine how small they are when they be- 

 gin laying. The smallest I have ever found nesting was 

 six feet, three inches, which would mean a seven year old. 



During the past eight years I have caused to be examined 

 more than one hundred and seventy-five female alligators 

 killed on my property during the breeding season, and the 

 smallest found with eggs was six feet, one inch. This leads 

 me to believe that female alligators do not breed until they 

 are six years old, and possibly seven years old. 



It is a fact well known to all old alligator hunters that the 

 length of an alligator can be very accurately told if one is 

 a good judge of measure and can see the alligators head; 

 for the distance from the forward edge of its eye to its nose 

 in inches is about the length of the alligator in feet. 



The alligator's head shown opposite page 64, is from one 

 that measured fourteen feet, eleven inches, while the ruler 

 resting on it shows the head to be fifteen inches from eye 

 to end of nose. 



The alligator's head shown opposite page 65, is from one 

 that measured thirteen feet, eight inches, and the rule rest- 

 ing on it shows fourteen inches. 



This alligator was pulled from its den with a pole and 

 killed with two blows of a hand axe by Emar Broussard, in 

 the cypress swamp east of Avery Island in September, 1925. 

 One cut of the axe can be seen across both jaws well back, 

 and a cut just below and back of the left eye which was fatal. 

 A section of bone was split from the alligator's head by the 

 last blow and can be seen in the photograph still attached 



