THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 81 



pole out of the hunter's hand and pull it down into the den. 



Occasionally an alligator hunter would become careless; 

 and I have known of men to be severely bitten by small 

 alligators whom they tried to kill by breaking their necks, 

 by putting a foot on their heads and catching hold of the 

 tail, and with a strong pull of the tail dislocate the neck 

 vertebrae. Sometimes an alligator would get its head out 

 from under the hunter's foot and catch hold of his leg or 

 foot and give him a severe bite. Even a five or six foot 

 alligator can inflict a painful wound, as its teeth are many 

 and very sharp, but one of this size has not sufficient weight 

 to be really dangerous. 



In the old days no small alligators were taken, but now 

 anything that can be skinned is killed. 



Old alligators are now very shy of man, and as they 

 usually have large underground tunnels in which to hide, 

 they sometimes cannot be gotten either by light or by pole, 

 and an alligator who has been shot at once by the light of 

 a bull's-eye is never again approachable with a light. As 

 soon as an alligator that has been shot at but not killed sees 

 a headlight, it sinks under the water. These alligators are 

 known as "blinkers," and are entirely shy of night hunters. 

 They are caught, however, by a different method, which is 

 a baited hook. When a hunter finds an alligator that is a 

 "blinker," or whose hole for some reason or other is such 

 that it cannot be caught with a pole, he kills a bird or 

 catches a fish and baits with it a very heavy strong hook, to 

 which he attaches a one-fourth inch rope eight or ten feet 

 in length. This rope is firmly tied to a tree growing on the 

 bank or to a strong stake driven into the earth. It is then 

 looped up and the bait hung about one foot above the water 

 from a forked limb stuck in the bank. The alligator seeing 

 this bait will swim to it and readily take it. Having taken 

 the bait into its mouth, it throws up its head and swallows 

 bait, hook and all. Of course, as soon as it moves off, the 

 line tightens, and the hook sinks into the flesh of the 



