THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 95 



I thought was made by the alligator, but was entirely un- 

 prepared for what I was next to see ; which was, what looked 

 like a bushel of wet and muddy rushes suddenly appearing 

 in the water at the beginning of the alligator's path to the 

 nest. This mass of material advanced steadily up the path, 

 but it was not until it reached the nest-clearing that I could 

 see that the alligator was carrying a huge mouthful of 

 rushes and their roots and the mud in which they grew. 

 This mass completely hid her head as she advanced up the 

 nest-road. Coming to the nest-mound she crawled up to 

 the top and deposited the mouthful of wet material in the 

 hollow of the nest. With only a short pause, back to the 

 pond she went, and I could plainly hear her tearing at the 

 growing rushes. In about ten minutes she reappeared with 

 another large mouthful of the same sort of material which 

 she also put in the depression at the top of the nest. The 

 work of bringing wet rushes and mud from the pond to 

 the nest and filling the hollowed-out top continued for three 

 hours and fifteen minutes, and nine trips were made to the 

 pond and back to the nest. By this time the hollow in the 

 top had been filled with this wet material until it was con- 

 siderably higher than the sides. She then climbed down 

 and walked all around the mound then back to the top, and 

 scooped up material with her mouth from places that did 

 not suit her fancy, placing it on other parts of the top, all 

 the while moving slowly round and round over and back 

 of the nest's top (which was by now at least three feet 

 high) until quite a regular hay-stack-like cone was shaped. 

 It was now ten minutes after six. I kept watch until 7 :30, 

 and as it was then too dark to see more, called it a day. 



I was in my blind before sunrise the next morning, and 

 as soon as it was light enough to see, observed the nest and 

 surroundings were exactly as they were the night before. 

 I saw nothing of her until ten minutes after ten o'clock, 

 when she came to the point where her path to the nest joined 

 the water, but did not come out of the water until 1 1 :40. 



