92 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



point where she had started her nest. When I got near the 

 spot, she was making considerable noise biting off the growth 

 and making a clearing. On seeing me she hurried down 

 her road and disappeared into the water. Realizing that 

 in order to observe the nest building I must be hidden; I 

 with some assistance, as quietly as possible made a small 

 opening through the thicket that would give me a clear 

 view of the alligator's road to the water and the opening 

 in which nest building was just beginning, and about fifteen 

 feet from where it was evident the nest was to be built. 

 Across this opening I placed on sticks driven in the ground 

 a piece of burlap forming three sides of a square through 

 which peep-holes were cut, masking this blind from the nest 

 side with green bamboo tops. Behind this blind I had a 

 box placed to sit on, and then left the vicinity. About 

 two hours later I quietly went to the blind, and while I was 

 still quite a long way from the observation place, was 

 thrilled to hear the alligator at work. Reaching my box 

 seat and looking through the camouflaged lookout I could 

 plainly see the work of nest-building, and it proved much 

 more elaborate than I had suspected. 



When I started watching, this alligator had probably not 

 been at work for more than three or four hours, perhaps 

 three hours before I built the blind, and certainly not more 

 than one hour later, but she had bitten off and mashed 

 down all vegetation over a space about ten feet by eight 

 feet, and had gathered a lot of the material into a rough 

 pile near the centre of her clearing. When I first saw her 

 at work she was scooping up, from the outside edges of her 

 trash pile, in her mouth, twigs and leaves, and holding them 

 firmly, would back across the center of the pile dropping 

 her burden on top of the mound already of considerable 

 size in width and height. She would then go forward and 

 get another mouthful from the outside edge of her clear- 

 ing and pull it across and past the centre. This pulling of 

 the brush and trash from the outside past the centre con- 



