258 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



the date of successive deposits of eggs, and thus guide the com- 

 mandante in fixing the time for the general invitation to the 

 Ega people. The turtles lay their eggs by night, leaving the 

 water, when nothing disturbs them, in vast crowds, and crawl- 

 ing to the central and highest part of the praia. These places 

 are, of course, the last to go under water when, in unusually 

 wet seasons, the river rises before the eggs are hatched by the 

 heat of the sand. One could almost believe, from this, that the 

 animals used forethought in choosing a place ; but it is simply 

 one of those many instances in animals where unconscious 

 habit has the same result as conscious prevision. The hours 

 between midnight and dawn ai-e the busiest. The turtles ex- 

 cavate with their broad webbed paws deep holes in the fine 

 sand : the first comer, in each case, making a pit about three 

 feet deep, laying its eggs (about 120 in number) and covering 

 them with sand ; the next making its deposit at the top of that 

 of its predecessor, and so on until every pit is full. The whole 

 body of turtles frequenting a praia does not finish laying in less- 

 than fourteen or fifteen days, even when there is no interrup- 

 tion. When all have done, the area (called by the Brazilians 

 taholeiro) over which they have excavated is distinguishable 

 from the rest of the praia only by signs of the sand having been 

 a little disturbed.^ 



The same naturalist says of the alligator, — 



These little incidents show the timidity and cowardice 

 (? prudence and caution) of the alligator. ETe never attacks 

 man when his intended victim is on his guard; but he is 

 cunning enough to know when this may be done with impunity. 

 Of this we had proof a few days afterwards, &c.^ 



Of the alligator, Jesse writes : ^ — 



But a most singular instance of attachment between two 

 animals, whose natures and habits were most opposite, was re- 

 lated to me by a person on whose veracity I can place the great- 

 est reliance. He had resided for nine years in the American 

 States, where he superintended the execution of some extensive 

 works for the American Government. One of these works con- 

 sisted in the erection of a beacon in a swamp in one of the rivers^ 



* Naturalist on the Amazon, pp. 285-6. 



2 Ibid. The astonishing facts relating to the migration of turtles- 

 in the laying season will be treated under the general heading * Migra- 

 tion ' in my forthcoming work. 



' Gleanings, vol. i., pp. 163-4:. 



