404 SPANISH HAITI. 



and the males to devour them ; and to this, and not 

 to their predilection for the flesh of dogs, are we to 

 ascribe the eagerness with which they scud away, 

 agitated by that voice which in the one case is the 

 thrilling cry of danger, and in the other, the exciting 

 announcement of food. 



" This susceptibility to be excited by hearing a 

 cry associated with peculiar instincts and appetites, 

 has other parallels in other animals. A very strik- 

 ing analogy is to be found in Wilson's anecdote of 

 the Cat-bird. 



" The Alligator's motion when prowling is lite- 

 rally a crawl ; and in their posture of attack they 

 stand with their bodies off the ground, and make their 

 onsets by successive leaps, the arched back mentioned 

 by Humboldt being then a peculiar and distin- 

 guishing trait of their anger. 



" An occurrence related to me, that happened to 

 a Spanish priest on the banks of the Guayabino, 

 will best illustrate at once the predaceous vehe- 

 mence and lurking patience of the Alligator. The 

 large savanna rivers in Spanish Haiti flow through 

 wide but gently descending borders, carpeted with 

 grass, and interspersed with thickets and clumps of 

 flowering shrubs and forest trees. The grass has all 

 the clean verdure of a lawn, and the clumps the 

 variety and arrangement of ornamental shrubberies, 

 and the earth is deep and loamy. These are favourite 

 sporting grounds. Beside being verdant and beau- 

 tiful, they are notoriously the game country. My 

 friend and his companions, who counted some four 

 in number, had divided themselves, trusting to the 



