106 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



finished. It had been raised a little higher but the top had 

 not been coned and slicked down, so I knew the eggs had 

 not been deposited. Nothing was done to the nest on the 

 twenty-second. The eggs had not been laid at eight o'clock 

 in the morning of the twenty-third, but the alligator was 

 on the nest and had begun to hollow the center. At noon on 

 the twenty-third, the eggs had been laid, the nest coned 

 with trash and mud taken from below the water surface 

 and slicked down. At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 

 twenty-third, I, with a couple of men, went to the nest, 

 dropped a noose over the head of the alligator when she 

 came out on the nest to defend it; measured the nest which 

 was three feet, nine inches in height, eight inches being in 

 water with a seven foot base; measured and weighed the 

 ggs which averaged 2.61 inches long by 1.60 inches 

 through, and weighed an average of two and one-eighth 

 ounces ; counted the eggs which numbered thirty-four ; placed 

 a double registering thermometer with its bulb at the cen- 

 ter of the eggs slanted so that its top was six inches below 

 the top of the nest-material; recovered the eggs and ther- 

 mometer, firming down the nest-material so that the nest 

 was exactly as it had been; measured the mother alligator 

 who was seven feet, three inches; turned her loose and 

 departed. 



This alligator is one of the lot of young, hatched August 

 22, 1921, and easily identified by the toe-marks made and 

 recorded when it was liberated. This was her first nest, 

 and the first nest made by any of the lot. It is of interest 

 here to note that the first nesting of this lot of alligators 

 was nine years and ten months after hatching, and this un- 

 der perfectly normal conditions. 



During the incubation period this nest was visited almost 

 daily and an exact record made of the maximum and mini- 

 mum temperature of the nest at the eggs, and a correspond- 

 ing record of the outside temperature in the shade. A rec- 

 ord was also kept of the rainfall. The data thus gathered 



