THE COMMON ALLIGATOR. 



37 



This apparatus is baited with the flesh of some animal, and suspended just about a foot from 

 the water, the other end of the rope being made fast to a tree or strong stake. 



As soon as the Alligator takes this bait and begins to pull at the cord, the barbs begin 

 to make their way into its throat, and it is evident from the construction of the hook that the 

 more the animal pulls, the firmer are the barbs struck into its tliroat. When thus hooked, its 

 struggles are terrific, and Mr. Waterton, who succeeded in capturing a fine specimen more 

 than ten feet in length, had tlie greatest difficulty in secui-ing it without damaging its 

 appearance. 



The eggs of the Alligator are small and numerous. The parent deposits them in the sand 

 of the river side, scratching a hole witli her paws, and placing the eggs in a regular layer 

 therein. She then scrapes some sand, dj-y leaves, grass and mud over them, smoothes it and 

 deposits a second layer upon them. These eggs are then covered in a similar manner and 



JACARE, OK YACARE.— Jaco;ii sderops. 



another layer deposited imtil the mother reptile has laid from fifty to sixty eggs. Although 

 they are hatched by the heat of the sun and the decaying vegetable matter, the mother does 

 not desert her young, but leads them to the water and takes care of them until their limbs are 

 sufficiently strong and their scales sufficiently firm to permit them to roam the waters without 

 assistance. 



As is the case with the crocodiles, the young Alligators are terribly persecuted by birds 

 and beasts, and are even in danger of being eaten by the old males of their own species. 

 During the winter months the Alligator buries itself in the mud, but a very little warmth 

 is sufficient to make it quit its retreat and come into the open air again. While lively, 

 especially at night, it is a most noisy animal, bellomng in so loud a tone and in so singular 

 a cadence that even the nightly concert of jaguars and monkeys is hardly heard when the 

 Alligators are roaring. 



It sometimes attains to a great size, and is then formidable to man. Mr. Waterton men- 

 tions a case when one of these creatures was seen to rush out of the water, seize a man and 



