BOOK Iir. CHAP. Vlir. S/ii 



but that '(agreeably to the relations of feme writers) the male de-»i 

 voiirs the eggs whenever, he can liiid them. Their time u< gene-' 

 ration is about the month of May. TJie female lays a great num- 

 b.r of eggs, about February or March ; thirty and upwards haviivg 

 been foundj-in one ncfl, buried in the faiid, on the bank of a river 

 near the fea [^y]. Hefice it is credible, that Providence-has de- 

 figned thefe eggs as food for rnany creatures, if not for man; they 

 are far from being difguftful ; but, when boiled hard, are as reliihing 

 as the eggs of a duck or a goofe. We are not for this rcafon, and 

 from this inftance, to conclude too haftily againft the general no- 

 tion, " that animals of ,, prey breed but few young." In fad, the 

 alligator- has many enemies ; but few more deftructive than man- 

 kind, whofe antipathy to it arifes from its formidable and un- 

 pleafing figure, rather than any real mifchief it is capable of adling. 

 Its appearance has afforded grounds for fuppofing its nature to be 

 equally horrible, but this idea is the rcfult of meer credulity and 

 apprehenfion. Ulloa relates, that the bitds called by the Spaniards 

 gallinazos (a larger fpecies of the carrion crow), in South-America, 

 fit perched among the branches of trees which overhang the rivers 

 in that country frequented by the alligators, to watch the laying 

 their eggs in the fand ; and as foon as the females have depofited 

 their hoard and are withdrawn, thefe birds dart down, and feaft on 

 as many as they can find. Our Jamaica carrion crows (which, 

 though inferior in fize, are of the (amQ gemaj are probably diredted 

 by the like inftindt, though it may have efcaped obfervation ; for 

 thefe birds are fo acute and diligent in their queft after food, as to 

 juftify the conjedlure. The Negroes allert, that not only the male 

 but the female alligators devour great numbers of their young after 

 they are hatched : that the male devours the eggs, I have already 

 (hewn J nor is it unlikely bujt the fame fharpnefs of appetite which 

 impels them to eat the eggs, may ftimulate them alfo in a 

 fcarcity of other provender to gobble up fome of the young fry. It 

 is certain that many other animals, as fwine, cats, rabbits, and rats, 

 are equally unnatural in this refpedl. And what feems to confirm 

 this opinion, is that a large brood of young ones is feldpm or ever 

 obferved. i 1 once found twelve in a clufter, on the water, amongft^ 



■ fv] Thirty- lix were found in the bpd)j of a female; we may therefore venture to fuppofe 

 that the number is generally between thirty and forty. 



the 



