56 ALLIGATOR MISSISSIPPIENSIS. 



mities are nearly twice the size of the anterior; they are rounded and covered in 

 the same manner, but with larger plates. The tarsus is flattened and sustains 

 four toes, the three external semi-palmate, and the three internal armed with 

 nails. 



Colour. The whole superior surface of the Alligator is dusky in the old 

 animal, but in the young it is banded with dirty yellowish-white, most remarkable 

 on the tail. The throat is yellowish-white; the plates of the abdomen are straw 

 colour on their posterior half and dusky on their anterior, lightest in the young 

 animal. The tail is coloured below like the belly, but still more dusky. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 14 inches; length of body, 3 feet 1 inch; length 

 of tail, 5 feet; total length, 9 feet 5 inches. The Alligator, however, frequently 

 reaches dimensions much greater; I have seen one in Carolina ISj feet long. 

 Bartram says in Florida they exceed the length of 23 feet, a size almost 

 incredible. 



Habits. Alligators abound in the low, stagnant ponds and deep morasses of 

 the southern states, where hundreds of them can be seen at a time, either on the 

 flat marshy banks of creeks and rivers, or on sandy or muddy shores left dry by 

 the ebb of the tide. Here they remain motionless for hours, apparently asleep, 

 and are often mistaken for logs of dead and decaying wood, as w^ell as from their 

 colour as from their perfect immobility; but when disturbed by the approach of 

 enemies, they suddenly retreat to the water. At other times they may be 

 observed floating on the surface of the water and only directed by its current; 

 suddenly they skim along with the greatest velocity, either in search of food or of 

 their mate. 



Such Alligators as dwell in ponds and streams out of the influence of tide- 

 water, wander much fui'ther from the banks, and are not unfrequently seen a 

 mile or more from water; this happens, however, most commonly when they 

 migrate for some reason or other from one pool to another. 



