306 THE ALLIGATOR. 



at other periods, a scratch, which would scarcely injure 

 an infant, will be sufficient to kill it. At certain periods 

 it feeds with the voracity of a shark, and then will for 

 months refuse to touch food, and all this with no visible 

 reason. The closest study of the alligator will give no 

 idea of its desires, habits, or appetites. 



The first movement of the alligator on being attacked 

 is to crouch down with its head close to the ground. 

 In this position it watches the intruder, till he finds that 

 the enemy is determined to make it a fight or a race. 

 Then, when anger begins to be in the ascendant, it rises 

 to its feet, gradually arches up its scaly back, and hisses 

 like a flock of geese with sore throats, or rather like 

 the expiring notes from the forge-bellows of a black- 

 smith. 



It may be described as a straightforward animal, in- 

 asmuch as it never turns aside out of its wav for 

 friend or foe. If the hunter meets one in a narrow 

 pathwa}^, he must either kill it or turn about himself. 

 A gentleman, who sported in a long canoe on the 

 waters of a lake, was just settling himself down in the 

 craft when he saw a large alligator with its head towards 

 him, evidently about to escape, if it could. The gentle- 

 man hesitated a moment, but he knew the invariable rule, 

 and after standing for a moment with his feet on the 

 boat's sides, like a second Colossus of Ehodes, thinking 

 that the intruder would pass between his legs, he sprang 

 over into the water from the side of the canoe, just as 



