26 The Alligator and Its Allies 
The average long diameter was 73.742 mm.; the 
average short diameter was 42.588 mm. 
The greatest variation in long diameter in any 
one nest of eggs was 15.5 mm.; the greatest varia- 
tion in short diameter in the eggs of any one nest 
was II mm. 
The average variation in the long diameter of 
the eggs from the same nest was 11.318 mm.; the 
average variation in the short diameter of the 
eggs from the same nest was 5.136 mm. 
It will be seen from the above that the average 
variation in the long diameter of eggs from the 
same nest is between one sixth and one seventh of 
the long diameter of the average egg; while the 
average variation in the short diameter of the eggs 
from the same nest is less than one eighth of the 
short diameter of the average egg. 
S. F. Clarke’ gives the limits of the long diameter 
as 50 mm. and 90 mm., and the maximum and 
minimum short diameters as 45 mm. and 28 mm. 
No such extremes in size were noticed among the 
eight hundred or more eggs that were examined. 
Economic Importance.’ More than one hundred 
years ago attempts were made to utilize the skin 
of the alligator, but it was not until about 1855 
that these attempts were successful and alligator 
leather became somewhat fashionable and some 
t Journal of Morphology, vol. v. 
2 The following figures are from an article by C. H. Stevenson in the 
Report of the Bureau of Fisheries, 1902, pp. 283-352. 
