Reptiles 



or sledge-hammer and look far more ludicrous than 

 romantic. 



Looking at the inert crocodiles in their tank at the Zoo, 

 or even beholding them floating like animate logs in their 

 native rivers, no one would guess that they, or rather 

 some of them, are expert nest-builders. Certain female 

 crocodiles, it is true, simply dig a hole in the sand, deposit 

 their eggs therein and cover up the cavity. Their nests, 

 however, are much more elaborate, and Mr Dittmar thus 

 describes one he discovered on the banks of the Savannah 

 river : " The nest consisted of a mound of water-soaked 

 twigs, dead masses of the hanging moss that had dropped 

 from the trees and other debris. The mound was about 

 five feet in diameter and two feet high. It contained 

 thirty-eight hard-shelled, white eggs three and a quarter 

 inches long and one and three quarters of an inch in 

 diameter. The eggs were collected in the middle of 

 August and began hatching in the first week of October. 

 They were deposited in two neat layers at the very bottom 

 of the mound. As we dug down to them the rotting 

 vegetable mass, scooped together by the parent, was found 

 to be producing a considerable heat. Of the parent there 

 was no sign during any part of the work of digging out 

 the eggs and packing the material composing the mound 

 into a number of bags to be shipped north." 



" The American alligator is one of the few crocodilians 

 giving voice to a loud sound a bellow or roar. A five- 

 foot specimen emits a series of sounds not unlike the 

 ' mooing ' of a cow, though shorter and more guttural. 

 A ten or twelve foot specimen lets out a rattling bellow 

 that shakes the night air of the lagoons and may be heard 

 for a mile. When so performing, the males emit vapoury 

 jets of musk from the glands on the chin. This saturates 

 the surrounding humid atmosphere, then, travelling on 

 an indolent air current, attracts company to the solitary 

 bellower." This habit of attracting the opposite sex by 

 means of perfume is by no means peculiar to the alligator. 



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