GENERAL CHARACTERS 15 



mals and birds is very limited, and fish constitutes by far 

 the greater portion of their daily food. If all the scaly mon- 

 sters of this Order were limited in food to the mammals and 

 aquatic birds which can be seized when drinking at the 

 water's edge, or swimming in mid-stream, they would indeed 

 go hungry.' 



It is a comparatively easy matter for a large crocodilian 

 to seize a quadruped of medium size, draw it into deep water 

 while struggling and drown it. On St. Vincent Island, 

 Florida, I saw two mules whose hind quarters bore scars a 

 foot long as the result of attacks by alligators in the small 

 fresh-water ponds of the interior of the island. The alliga- 

 tors who made those bold attacks must have been rendered 

 desperate by rmnger. 



In the Reptile House of the Zoological Park, during a 

 fight between two large alligators in the pool, it was discov- 

 ered how an alligator dismembers a bulky victim in order 

 to devour it. An alligator seized a fighting enemy by one 

 leg, and using his tail as a propeller, whirled himself round 

 and round like a revolving shaft, until in about five seconds 

 the leg was twisted off, close up to the body! That deadly 

 rotary movement would have torn a leg from a small elephant. 



On another occasion a 12-foot alligator named "Moses" 

 became angry at an 8-foot companion, seized it by the body, 

 lifted it clear of the water, and shook it until the tough skin 

 of the back was completely torn in two at the joint immedi- 

 ately in front of the hind legs. 



In the course of work among the crocodiles of Ceylon I 

 found that some crocodiles will eat the flesh of their own kind, 



