THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 105 



CHAPTER IX 



INCUBATION AND GROWTH OF YOUNG 



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On the eighteenth of June, 1931, an alligator started 



building its nest in a large clump of Egyptian Papyrus 

 (Cyperus Papyrus) about fifty feet from shore in my wild 

 life refuge on Avery Island, where I had liberated a lot 

 of toe-marked little alligators in 1921. 



The place was easy to get to, but there was no suitable 

 location near the nest to put up an observation blind, so the 

 actual construction of the nest was not watched. This was 

 a young female, one of the lot I had marked for identifica- 

 tion August 22, 1921, with her first nest. 



The Papyrus growth in which the nest was being built 

 was very thick, about ten feet high, growing in about eight 

 inches of water on the edge of deep water and close against a 

 concrete, retaining wall. These heavy, soft-stemmed plants 

 were mashed down at the location for the nest, by the alli- 

 gator crawling over them. When I first saw the spot on 

 June 18, at 8:30 A.M., a clearing had been made about 

 eight feet by eight feet, and a considerable number of 

 Papyrus stems had been torn loose and were loosely piled in 

 the center. The nest-builder backed into the deep water, 

 which was only a few feet from the nest, on my approach, 

 and watched me, but showed no fear. 



At noon on the nineteenth, the nest was about two feet 

 above the water, and as far as I could see, built entirely of 

 the stems of Papyrus. At noon on the twentieth, the nest 

 was two feet, ten inches above the water with a six foot, 

 four inch base. The top part was now covered with grass 

 roots, mud and decaying vegetation taken from below the 

 water. At noon on the twenty-first, the nest was apparently 



