ALLIGATORS OF GUIANA 287 



the year accompanied by small ones of two distinct sizes, 

 which the hunters believe are the remnants of the breeds of 

 the two past years, still more or less attendant upon her. 



The watchfulness of the parent is of course a trait in- 

 herited through long past centuries, and is in no way conse- 

 quent upon the very recent, desultory robbing of the nests 

 by man. But it is curious that their worst enemy at present 

 is that most terrible pest introduced by man, from India, 

 the mongoose. The only autochthonous foe is the big tegu, 

 known locally as salimpenta. Both of these enemies wait 

 until the parent alligator has gone away and then dig their 

 way down to the eggs. The big yellow-tailed snake has been 

 seen trying to force its way through the crust of the rubbish, 

 but in vain. 



The mating season begins in April and is announced 

 by the females calling the males. The proportions of sexes 

 is very unequal, there being twenty or more females to every 

 male. The cry of the female is a subdued, but very strong 

 and penetrating grunt, often repeated. The male's voice is 

 a bellowing or roaring, and when this is heard in the trench, 

 every female within hearing rushes toward him, ten or fifteen 

 sometimes surrounding him at once. After mating, each 

 goes off to her respective nest, where she deposits the entire 

 number of eggs at one laying, afterwards covering them 

 carefully. 



The male never goes near the nest, except under very 

 unusual circumstances, and it is in this connection that my 

 alligator hunter indulged his belief in a romantic yarn, which 

 he was convinced was true. I recount it rather as a pleasant 

 bit of negro imagination, than as an addition to reptilian 

 psychology. My hunter said that now and then he came 

 across maimed and crippled females which yet had well- 

 built nests full of eggs. One such was an animal which had 

 three feet bitten off, leaving only one hind leg. She could 

 not get up the trench bank without support, and yet her 

 nest was on the top. After trapping her, the hunter con- 



