IX 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 



HERE and there in my Florida notebooks are 

 jottings that, while they fill no particular corner in 

 any of the foregoing pages, I would yet like to 

 include, without, of course, repeating such as have 

 reference to the fishes already described. 



There is a crocodile in Florida as well as an 

 alligator. It is a much rarer reptile, and Jack, 

 though the only taxidermist in that neighbourhood, 

 had had but two specimens through his hands. I 

 do not remember seeing any articles of native 

 crocodile-skin in the store at Jacksonville, and in 

 fact the Florida crocodile (Crocodilus americanus), 

 which was discovered not many years ago, seems 

 to be a somewhat mysterious animal. From the 

 alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) it seems to be 

 as distinct physically as in its habits. A glance at 

 the accompanying photographs will help the reader 

 to note the obvious distinguishing characters, the 

 long, pointed snout of the fish-eating crocodile, the 

 blunter head of the alligator. In colour, the 

 alligator is black, the crocodile grey. The alligator 

 hides its teeth ; those of the crocodile show con- 

 spicuously in a groove in the upper jaw. The 

 breeding habits also differ considerably. The 

 crocodile deposits its eggs, numbering less than one 

 hundred, in holes in the sand close to the salt 

 water, smoothing the sand over the top of them. 



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