NESTS OF THE ALLIGATOR. 161 



at their bases ; they are constructed with mud, grass 

 and herbage. At first they lay a floor of this kind 

 of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they 

 deposit a layer of eggs, and upon this a stratum of 

 mortar, seven or eight inches in thickness, and then 

 another layer of eggs, and in this manner one stratum 

 upon another, nearly to the top. I believe they com- 

 monly lay from one to two hundred eggs in a nest; 

 these are hatched, I suppose, by the heat of the sun ; 

 and perhaps the vegetable substances mixed with the 

 earth, being acted upon by the sun, may cause a small 

 degree of fermentation, and so increase the heat in 

 those hillocks. The ground for several acres about 

 these nests showed evident marks of a continual resort 

 of alligators ; the grass was everywhere beaten down, 

 hardly a blade or straw was left standing; whereas 

 all about, at a distance, it was five or six feet high, 

 and as thick as it could grow together. 



a The female, as I imagine, carefully watches her 

 own nest of eggs until they are all hatched, or per- 

 haps while she is attending to her own brood she 

 takes under her care and protection as many as she 

 can get at one time, either from her own particular 

 nest or others ; but certain it is, that the young are not 

 left to shift for themselves, for I have had frequent 

 opportunities of seeing the female alligator leading 

 about the shores her train of young ones, just as a 

 hen does her brood of chickens ; and she is equally as- 

 siduous and courageous in defending the young, 



11 



