98 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



bank, keeping this position for about thirty minutes, then 

 slowly backed out of sight into the rushes. Although I 

 kept watch for another thirty minutes, she did not come in 

 sight again. The finished nest measured seven feet, two 

 inches across the base, three feet, four inches high to the 

 top of the cone. Its base was round and the nest tapered 

 regularly from the base of a rounded cone, shaped like the 

 blunt end of a hen's egg. 



Many times in the following days I visited the nest and 

 always found the old one on guard; or she appeared shortly 

 after my arrival, ready to defend her nest against molesta- 

 tion. If I made as if to disturb the nest she would come 

 out of the water as fast as she could with mouth half open 

 and hissing loudly, and I would always have to retreat, for 

 she showed every intention of attacking. 



During the period of incubation, there was no material 

 added to the nest, but on the days when it did not rain, the 

 old alligator would crawl over the top of the nest and 

 liberally wet it by voiding water through her vent in order 

 to keep the nest-material and the eggs moist. On very hot, 

 dry days this wetting was done twice a day. After a hard 

 rain she would crawl on top of the nest and drag her body 

 over it, thus slicking the surface, I suppose to better hold 

 the inside heat (of the decaying vegetable matter of which 

 the nest was composed) around the eggs. Towards the 

 end of the eighth week after she laid her eggs, I visited the 

 nest twice daily, as I knew by past experience that the eggs 

 should hatch in about sixty days. On August 21, I 

 could plainly hear the young ones grunting in the nest, and 

 knew they must be hatching, but as the mother had not 

 opened the nest, I did not disturb it. She seemed more 

 than ever anxious at my being near the nest and showed by 

 her repeatedly coming at me that she would attack if I at- 

 tempted to molest her nursery. I knew the young would 

 not come out of the nest until she had removed the top six 

 or eight inches, so I went to my blind to keep watch. The 



