110 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



The thorn on the point of the upper jaw disappeared on 

 the seventh day. 



***The hard shell on the eggs is now cracked all over, the 

 eggs are much swollen with the hard outer shell crumbling 

 off. The inner flexible shell is also getting soft and flaky 

 and seems to be considerably thickened and disintegrating. 



****The young alligators could be plainly heard grunt- 

 ing in the nest last evening, and this morning when I visited 

 the nest the top material had been bitten off and thrown to 

 one side, the recording thermometer with it, and the head 

 and shoulders of a little alligator was pushed through the 

 loose covering left on the top. On removing this loose 

 covering a number of the newly-hatched, little ones could be 

 seen, also some unhatched eggs. Eight of the little ones 

 were toe-marked, measured and weighed for future refer- 

 ence, put back in the nest and covered up as it was found. 

 All these little ones had a minute, sharp point on the end 

 of the nose. The mother was very uneasy all the time 

 I was handling her young, and it was necessary to have 

 two men with heavy wooden pitch-forks constantly watch- 

 ing to keep her from getting to me. The young measured 

 from eight and one-half inches to eight and seven-eighths 

 inches in length, and weighed one and one-half ounces to 

 two ounces. On the morning of the twenty-ninth, I visited 

 the nest and found all the little ones had left. 



This nest of alligator eggs took sixty-six days to hatch, 

 several days longer than the average, which is from sixty- 

 two to sixty-four days. This delay in hatching was prob- 

 ably due to two causes. First, the outside temperature 

 chart shows the weather was cooler than usual for this sec- 

 tion of Louisiana. Second, in opening the nest almost daily 

 (although the opening was only about three inches square 

 and closed as soon as the thermometer was read) it is pos- 

 sible the nest temperature was reduced slightly. The out- 

 side temperature did not seem to effect the inside nest tem- 

 perature, and on some days the outside shade temperature 

 was greater than the nest temperature, as on August fourth 



