ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Vol. XX 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



JANUARY, ]917 



Number 1 



THE ALLIGATORS OF GEORGETOWN 



By William Beebe 



FLOATING branches and logs are a com- 

 mon sight on the waters of the creeks and 

 rivers of Guiana, and about one in every 

 three of these logs is an alligator. Common in 

 many places and actually abundant in a few, 

 these great saurians are far less conspicuous 

 than their infinitely smaller relatives — the liz- 

 ards which everywhere scamper up tree-trunks 

 or barge clumsily through the fallen leaves. 

 Several negroes in Georgetown make a living 

 collecting and stuffing young alligators and one 

 man who had constantly followed this line of 

 work for twenty years had acquired a very 

 thorough knowledge of the ways of life of these 

 giant reptiles. Among the natives generally, 

 they are feared and avoided, and are (mistak- 

 enly) accredited with great longevity, of one or 

 two hundred years. 



Caimans or crocodiles are not found on the 

 coast, and in fact live only above the first falls 

 or rapids on the rivers whence mythical giant 

 crocodiles are occasionally reported by the In- 

 dians. 



Alligators occur in most of the rivers, creeks 

 and even trenches along the coast, and nests 

 are found in Georgetown itself, about a hun- 

 dred eggs being gathered in the Botanical 

 Gardens each season. The female alligators 

 when full grown measure from three and a half 

 to five feet, while the males, in exceptional 

 cases, attain a length of nine feet. 



The actual nesting season begins in May and 

 reaches its height in June. Nests and eggs are 

 still to be found in lessening numbers in July 

 and August, but no eggs have been taken either 

 in April or September. The number laid by each 



female varies from twenty to forty, each weigh- 

 ing about three ounces. They require at least 

 seventy-five days to hatch. The little 'gators 

 are about eight inches long, a whole inch of 

 which is gained within a few hours after break- 

 ing the shell. 



Three weeks before actual laying com- 

 mences, the female alligator gathers together a 

 pile of water-soaked or decayed vegetation, 

 pulling it up and carrying it in her mouth to 

 some secluded spot on the bank of a trench or 

 creek. Here she piles it and mats it down 

 rather firmly in a rough heap about two feet in 

 lieight. When alligators have been much 

 bothered or persecuted, they will often select 

 a pegass trench and make their nest on the 

 floating vegetation in the center, out of the 

 reach of any passing native. 



When several weeks have passed, she tears 

 tlie nest open and lays her eggs in the center 

 of the hot steaming mass. Unlike the turtles 

 which lay their eggs in the sand banks of the 

 neighboring rivers, she does not desert the 

 nest, but remains most of the day somewhere 

 in the vicinity. She does not feed there, how- 

 ever, but daily swims to some more distant 

 place. Her food consists of fish, frogs and 

 snakes, with whatever small animals or birds 

 can be captured, while dead creatures and even 

 carrion are eaten without hesitation. If the 

 feeding ground is at a considerable distance it 

 is an easy matter to open the nest and examine 

 the eggs undetected, but if the alligator does 

 not have to go far, she will return at the slight- 

 est sound. 



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