694 REPTILIA—ALLIGATOR. 
eggs, of the size of a tennis-ball, and of the same figure, covered with a 
tough, white skin, like parchment. She takes above an hour to perform 
this task; and then covering up the place so artfully that it can scarcely be 
perceived, she goes back, to return again the next day. Upon her return, 
with the same precaution as before, she lays about the same number of 
eggs; and the day following also a like number. Thus, having ¢ceposited 
her whole quantity, and having covered them close up in the sand, they are 
soon vivified by the heat of the sun; and at theend of thirty days, the young 
ones begin to break open the shell. At this time, the female is instinctively 
taught that her young ones want relief; and she goes upon land, to scratch 
away the sand, and set them free. Her brood quickly avail themselves of 
their liberty ; a part run unguided to the water; another part ascend the 
back of the female, and are carried thither in greater safety. But the moment 
they arrive at the water, all natural connection is at an end. The whole 
brood scatters into different parts of the bottom; by far the greater number 
are destroyed; and the rest find safety in their agility or minuteness. 
The open-bellied crocodile is furmished with a false belly, like the opos- 
sum, where the young creep out and in, as their dangers and necessities 
require. Itis probable that this open-bellied crocodile is viviparous, and 
fosters her young, that are prematurely excluded, in this second womb, until 
they come to proper maturity. 
THE ALLIGATOR,! OR "AMER EC ANY © RO Cie 
DTG E 
¢ 
Wouicu is called the cayman by the Indians, is closely allied to the preceding; 
the principal difference between them being that its head and partof its neck 
are much more smooth than those of the latter, and that its snout is more wide 
and flat, and more rounded at the extremity. The usual length of the alh- 
gator is seventeen or eighteen feet, but it sometimes exceéds this. This 
ata is a native of the warmer parts of America, in some of which it is 
astonishingly numerous. Its voice is loud and dreadful; and its musky 
stent is sometimes so powerful as to be exceedingly offensive. 
The habits of the North American alligator are described with great 
accuracy, and in a very amusing manner, by Mr Audubon. ‘One of the 
most remarkable objects connected with the natural history of America, 
that attract the traveller’s eye as he ascends through the mouths of the 
1The genus Alligator has the muzzle broad, obtuse ; teeth unequal ; the fourth tooth on 
each side of the lower j jaw entering a cavity in the upper; feet semi-palmated, and with 
dentations. 
