THE 



LOGIST. 



Vol. 1. No. 8. GAINES, N. Y., DEC, 1884. 



( Published Mon thlv. 

 "I 60c. Pek Year. 



The Alligator. 



The Saurian in its native home written 

 for the Young Oologist. 



The principal haunts of this saurian are 

 oxu" swamps, lagoons, grassy borders of 

 fresh water, lakes, and uunavigated bayous. 

 But it is not restricted to those localities 

 alone, for small and medium sized ones are 

 found in all of our water courses, even 

 near the stir and noise of towns. They 

 would be exceedingly common in all of 

 our streams, were it not that some people 

 kill them because they fear them, and 

 others, on account of their few vulnerable 

 parts, consider them a desirable target to 

 test their marksmanship. The large alli- 

 gators will not trouble a person if he shows 

 no hostility to them ; but, if troubled or 

 wounded, they prove formidable antago- 

 nists, especially during the breeding season. 

 They are consequently shunned by the 

 swampers, and not many of them can be 

 obtained, who will go and trouble their 

 nests and eggs. 



As an instance of how dangerous it is to 

 travel where the alligators breed, I may 

 mention the two colored wood-choppers on 

 Bayou Du Large, who, while passing near 

 an alligator's nest, were attacked and their 

 pirogue capsized. One of them had his 

 thigh badly lacerated by the enraged 

 reptile, and, but for the other man coming 

 to his assistance, might have been killed. 



The pupil of their eyes are elongated 

 like a cat during the day, and are dilated 

 by the darkness of night, and assume an 

 orbicular form. They are, therefore, noc- 

 turnal as well . as diurnal in their habits, 

 though the greater part of the day is spent 

 in basking in the sunshine, or sluggishly 

 drawing themselves over the gramineous 

 surface of the water. Their locomotion is 

 as rapid at night as during the day it is 

 slow. When disturbed by the approach of 



a person and not disposed to fight, the 

 alligator disappears with a splash beneath 

 the water. If shot and mortally wounded, 

 he turns over on his back, beats the water 

 violently with his tail, and plunges 

 beneath to die. The alligator does not eat 

 often and can live for weeks without food. 

 The alligators food consists of dead 

 animals, birds, etc., besides which he 

 manages to secure some of the living ones 

 also. He has been seen to catch and kill large 

 dogs as they were drinking from the stream , 

 and to climb up the cross-bar fence, drop 

 over in the poultry yard, and steal some 

 of its denizens ; clothed in nearly invulne- 

 rable armor he does not hesitate to attack 

 the prey. Sometimes he may be observed 

 apparently sleeping, while the dragon-flies 

 are circling overhead, some of them prob- 

 ably mistaking the projection on the tip of 

 his snout for something inanimate, alight 

 to rest themselves, and are immediately 

 engulped by the saurian, who, throwing 

 his head back, catches them in the same 

 manner that a dog does the cracker placed 

 on his nose. In spring the alligator calls 

 its mate by uttering a series of yelps. 

 When fighting among themselves, or play- 

 ing in the muddy water, the large ones 

 bellow nearly like a bull, which has been 

 compared by Longfellow, in "A Tale of 

 Acadie, " to a roar : ' ' Mixed with the whoop 

 of the crane and the roar of the grim 

 alligator." The alligators generally build 

 their nests in the shallow part of swamps, 

 lagoons, or untraveled bayous during the 

 months of May and June. It is conical in 

 shape and rises to a height of about two 

 feet, with a base approximating three feet. 

 It is composed of grass, rushes, and con- 

 tiguous vegetable litter ; the grass and 

 rushes are cut and transported to the 

 mound, that which is near is thrown on by 

 their feet. During the months of June 

 and July the alligators lay, and as many 



