i8 CROCODILES. 



The early Spanish settlers of South America on meeting with a 

 gigantic lizard-like reptile naturally applied to it the name of una 

 lagarta, which is the Spanish term for a lizard ; and this as naturally became in 

 course of time corrupted into alligator. It would appear, indeed, that this name 

 was first given to the caiman, to which in strict propriety it should therefore 

 belong ; but now, by the common consent of naturalists, it is taken as the special 

 designation of the members of the present genus. The alligators, as thus restricted, 

 are represented by one species from North America, and by a second from the 

 Yang-tse-Kiang in China ; while there is also a third and imperfectly known 

 species, of which the habitat is as yet undetermined. The alligators differ from 

 the caimans merely by the forward prolongation of the nasal bones of the skull, 

 so as to divide the aperture of the nostrils into two equal moieties, by the want 

 of articulation between the bony plates of the back, and the absence or extreme 

 thinness of those on the lower surface of the body. Curiously enough, the Chinese 

 alligator (Alligator sinensis), which is a comparatively small species, is the one 

 coming nearest in structure to the caimans ; this approximation being shown by 

 the great development of bone in the upper eyelid, and the presence of thin bony 

 plates on the lower surface of the body. The latter are, however, placed wide 

 apart, without any mutual articulation or overlapping. In this species the front 

 toes are free, the number of plates on the neck is usually six, although these may 

 be reduced to four, while generally there are but six plates in the widest of the 

 transverse rows on the back. The number of teeth in the upper jaw is seventeen 

 or eighteen, against eighteen or nineteen in the lower. In colour the upper-parts 

 are greenish black, speckled and streaked with yellow ; while the under-parts are 

 greyish. In the much larger Mississippi alligator (A. mississippiensis), of which 

 the dimensions exceed those of the great caiman, the front toes are webbed, there 

 are but four plates on the neck, and there are always eight plates in the widest 

 of the transverse rows of the back. There are nineteen or twenty teeth on each 

 side of both jaws ; and in the adult the colour is dark green or blackish above, 

 and yellowish below. The range of this species embraces the South-Eastern United 

 States, from the Rio Grande to North Carolina. The third species (A. helois) is a 

 small one, distinguished by the slight compression of the tail, which is scarcely 

 crested. 



Our knowledge of the Chinese alligator (which was first made known to science 

 in 1879) in the living state is mainly or entirely derived from specimens exhibited 

 in the menageries of Europe ; while the accounts of the mode of life of the Missis- 

 sippi species are by no means so full as is desirable. It appears, however, that the 

 latter spends the greater part of its time in the water, where its main diet is formed 

 by fish, although it will seize and drag such sheep, goats, dogs, deer, or horses, that, 

 while drinking, come within reach of its terrible jaws. During flood-time, when 

 many of the lowlands are under water, the alligators leave the rivers to feed on 

 the fish which abound in the flooded districts ; returning to their old quarters with 

 the subsidence of the inundations. To such flooded lowlands, writes Audubon, " in 

 the early part of the autumn, when the heat of a southern sun has evaporated 

 much of the water, the squatter, the hunter, the planter, all go in search of sport. 

 The lakes then are about two feet deep, having a fine sandy bottom. . . . The long, 



