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NATURAL H1STOXY. 



Alligator.* This formidable reptile formerly inhabited the fresh waters of the Carolinas, the 

 Mississippi, higher than the Red River, and the swamps of Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana, but its 

 present roaming ground is more restricted. Growing to a length of fourteen or fifteen feet, the head is 

 one-seventh of the length, and half as broad at the articulation of the jaws as it is long. The snout is 

 flattened on the upper surface, and it is rounded broadly in front and straight at the sides. The shape 

 of the fore part of the head is so Pike-like that Cuvier gave the Alligator the name of lucius a Pike. 



MISSISSIPPI OR PIKE-HEADED ALLIGATOR. 



The internal rim of the orbits is large and projects, and the nostrils are separated by a long knob. 

 The skull has two shallow oblique oval pits, with two small holes. The colour is a deep greenish- 

 brown above and a light yellow below, and the sides are more or less striped. They have a bright 

 observant eye, and hiss from the back of the throat, and snap their jaws together, when angry. It is 

 said that men and quadrupeds of some size fall a prey to it whilst bathing, drinking, or crossing rivers, 

 but usually they prey by night, and in companies. Fish are their principal food. It is said that the 

 female digs a hole in the sand, and deposits her eggs in layers separated from one another by layers of 

 leaves and dry grass, and that but one laying occurs in a year. The Alligators hibernate and bury 

 themselves in the mud as soon as cool or cold weather sets in, and come out with the returning heat 

 The eyelids are smooth and fleshy in this Alligator. 



* Alligator lucius. 



