90 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



The flesh of the tail of the young alligator is excellent, 

 although it is not eaten generally, even by the natives, ex- 

 cept a few who are not especially squeamish about their 

 food. I have often eaten it fried, roasted, fricasseed, and 

 finely chopped and baked. When properly cooked and sea- 

 soned, it is as good flesh as I want to eat, and should be 

 universally used for food. Its taste resembles somewhat 

 whale or porpoise meat, having a slight, fishy taste. Re- 

 sembling, however, in both taste and texture, meat rather 

 than fish. 



The following nesting records are of value in the life 

 history of this creature, and speak for themselves. 



I have for many years kept alligators in large pens built 

 on the edge of my wild life refuge on Avery Island, Louisi- 

 ana. At first these pens were about thirty feet square, build 

 by driving two by ten-inch cypress plank five feet into the 

 pond's bottom and extending above the water line for about 

 five feet, taking in both bank and water. There were 

 three of these pens with connecting doors between them. 

 In two of the pens I kept large male alligators, in the third 

 a large female. At the proper time for several years the 

 female was turned in with a male, and after mating put 

 back to her pen, where she for four years built a 

 nest on the bank from material furnished her, usually hay 

 and fresh cut marsh grass ; laid a clutch of eggs which in due 

 time were hatched. I kept annually a close record of the 

 nest building and time of incubation, but as this procedure 

 was somewhat artificial, I, in order to get accurate nesting 

 data on these big reptiles under perfectly normal conditions, 

 on May 26, 1921, turn a large female, who measured 

 nine feet, one inch, in with a nine foot male. They had 

 shown a desire to get together for several days, and the 

 male had been unusually noisy, roaring at frequent inter- 

 vals day and night. 



As soon as the connecting door was opened the female 

 went through to the male, and without preliminary maneu- 



