112 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



have hatched in from two to six days longer, it being sixty 

 days since they were laid. On trying to determine the cause 

 of the slow embryonic development, I noticed there was no 

 grass or leaves or other organic matter used in building 

 the nest and that the eggs were in a solid bed of fairly dry 

 earth. The nest was visited after, and I noticed the mother 

 ceased visiting the nest on August 14, she, evidently, be- 

 lieving the time for hatching had passed. On August 31, 

 I again opened the nest and opened a couple of the eggs, 

 finding the embryos about three-fourths developed, and a 

 large amout of the white and yolk yet to be absorbed. The 

 little alligators were apparently normal and when removed 

 from the eggs could see, and would open their mouths when 

 my finger was put near their heads. I closed the nest and 

 did not open it again until September 22, when while stand- 

 ing near it I thought I heard the grunt of a little alligator. 

 The first egg I uncovered had the head of the little one 

 sticking through the shell and as soon as the egg was lifted 

 from its packed position, the little alligator scrambled out 

 in a lively manner. I then uncovered all of the eggs, and 

 from the thirty-one left in the nest, eight little alligators 

 popped out as soon as the eggs were released from their 

 packed position. In the rest of the eggs the young were 

 fully developed, but dead. The reason that these eggs 

 hatched forty-three days after they should have hatched, 

 was due to the fact that they had had no artificial heat to 

 stimulate embryonic development, as no green plant-mate- 

 rial had been used in the nest-building. 



On August 22, 1921, I weighed, measured, toe-marked 

 and liberated thirty-eight newly-hatched, little alligators 

 from the nest, the building of which was described in 

 chapter eight. My object in marking and liberating them 

 was to procure accurate data on the growth of alligators 

 under normal conditions. This data was easily gotten by 

 going into the open water of the Refuge in a boat at night 

 and catching the alligators by the light of an electric head- 



