REPTILIA 175 



The tiny alligators that are most commonly sold to tourists, to be 

 brought North, perhaps, and allowed to freeze or starve to death, may 

 either be caught by a wire noose at the end of a fishing rod, or they 

 may be hatched from eggs that are taken from the nests shortly before 

 they are ready to hatch. Such eggs may readily be hatched by simply 

 keeping them moist and at a fairly constant temperature. Besides the 

 above uses Ditmars says: 



"The eggs are eaten in many portions of the South, and the search for 

 eggs at the proper season furnishes profitable employment for many persons, 

 as each nest contains a large number of eggs, about 30 in the average nest." 



Never having eaten an alligator egg I cannot speak from personal 

 experience of its flavor; but it has always seemed strange to me that 

 more use is not made of the flesh of the alligator. This flesh is often 

 said to have too strong a flavor to be palatable; I have eaten it, and it 

 had no rank taste but was decidedly agreeable, being, as might perhaps 

 be expected of so amphibious an animal, somewhat like both fish and 

 flesh, yet not exactly like either. Perhaps greater care should be 

 taken in skinning an animal that is to be used for food in order that the 

 flesh be not tainted with the musk. It may be a lack of care in prepa- 

 ration that has given rise to the impression that alligator meat is too 

 strong to be pleasant. It is perhaps, also, the "idea" of eating a 

 reptile that makes the meat unpopular. A half-grown boy, who was 

 once in the swamps with me, had expressed a great aversion to alligator 

 meat, so the guide, one day, offered him a nicely fried piece of alligator 

 meat, saying it was fish; the meat was eaten with evident relish and the 

 diner was not told until after a second piece had disappeared what he 

 had been eating. It always seemed strange that the poor people 

 of the South should not more often vary the monotony of fat pork and 

 corn bread with alligator steaks. Whether the meat could be smoked, 

 salted, or canned so that it would keep in a hot climate I do not know; 

 I am not aware of any experiments along this line. 



An article by the writer on "Reptiles as Food," which appeared 

 in the December, 1917, number of The Scientific Monthly, having 

 excited the curiosity of the members of a large boarding house in 

 Morgantown, W. Va., it was suggested that a collection be taken among 

 those interested to buy a couple of small alligators and have them 

 cooked, to see if the flesh really was as agreeable as was claimed in the 



