Volume V. September, i8gi. Number 2. 



JOURNAL 



MORPHOLOGY. 



THE HABITS AND EMBRYOLOGY OF THE 

 AMERICAN ALLIGATOR. 



SAMUEL FESSENDEN CLARKE. 



In the fresh and brackish waters of some of the southern 

 United States there are found two representatives of the highly 

 organized Crocodilia or Loricata, an alligator and a crocodile. 

 The alligators are very abundant in some of the waters of 

 Florida and of Louisiana ; they occur in less numbers in the 

 intervening regions, and have been found as far north as the 

 Neuse River in North Carolina, 1 and west to the San Antonio 

 River in middle Texas. They live in the pools and streams 

 where the water is almost or quite fresh, and they are also 

 occasionally seen swimming in the nearly pure salt water of the 

 Indian River, Florida, and other similar places. 



The Indian River is not, strictly speaking, a river, but a nar- 

 row arm of the sea about one hundred miles long, and from one 

 to several miles in width. It communicates freely by several 

 passages with the ocean, and its fauna is mainly marine ; star- 

 fishes and medusae of several kinds, with many other marine 

 forms, being very abundant. It receives several sluggish fresh- 

 water affluents, the most important being the St. Lucie and the 

 Sebastian. Near the mouth of the St. Lucie the manatee is 

 found, and I have seen a large alligator near there, swimming 

 at the surface in mid-stream. 



Usually one finds them in the waters of the smaller streams 



1 And probably in Virginia. 



