100 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



except for hissing at us, and we proceeded to remove the 

 two or three inches of loose nest-material from over the 

 little alligators. As I expected, all the eggs were hatched 

 and the young as pretty and lively as could be. They were 

 put into a basket, and a hollow was made in the center of the 

 nest down to the hard ground so that they could be put 

 back into the nest after I was through with them. Every 

 egg had hatched and there were forty-two of the little 

 fellows. They measured from eight and one-half to nine 

 and one-half inches, none more, none less. Their weight 

 was from two and one-eighth to two and seven- 

 eighths ounces. All of them had on the top end of the 

 upper jaw a very small thorn-like point, evidently for the 

 purpose of scratching a hole through the tough inner egg 

 covering. After all had been measured and weighed I put 

 them back in the basket, and marked them by cutting the 

 first joint off one or more toes and splitting the web be- 

 tween one or more toes for future identification, making a 

 record of each mark. The hollow in the nest was then 

 partly filled, the young put back and covered over loosely 

 with the material that had been taken from over them, and 

 after freeing the mother and giving her a few pieces of raw 

 meat, which she readily took, I left the nest, made around 

 quietly and got into my blind and saw that the old alligator 

 was crawling around the nest making low grunts, sounding 

 very much like a large pig, and the young could be heard 

 answering. She slowly went down her path to the water 

 grunting every little while. On reaching the water, she 

 turned keeping her head on land towards the nest, but with 

 most of her body in the water. At 11 :30 the first of the 

 young pushed through the loose top covering and it was 

 quickly followed by the others; all of them ran in a most 

 lively way to the mother who kept her position and con- 

 tinued to grunt. Her little ones took to the water along- 

 side her and she slowly backed out of sight into the rushes 

 with them on each side and following. 



