REPTILES IN CAPTIVITY 199 
The next morning we allowed the water to run off and 
were then able to see the extent of the damage. All the 
warriors lay prostrate on the battlefield, every one of them 
shockingly mutilated and two of them quite dead. These two 
had had the whole of their under jaws and a great part of 
their upper jaws split in pieces. Of the other four, two had 
had their forelegs nearly torn off and hanging only by a shred 
of skin. The fifth had had its eye torn out, and the sixth had 
had the end of its tail bitten off. With the exception of the 
last they all died within a week, but he of the shortened tail 
slowly recovered and I was able subsequently to sell him. 
After this incident I took careful precautions against any 
recurrence of these fights. Whenever a new alligator arrived 
I muzzled him by tying a cord tightly round his jaws before 
letting him out. This was rather a ticklish business, for when 
one had inserted one’s hand in the box there were consider- 
able odds that it might not come out again. .When several 
animals which had arrived together were muzzled and turned 
out loose into a basin they would fall savagely upon one 
another, but could do each other no harm, and in about a 
week they would have quieted down sufficiently to make it 
safe to remove the muzzles. This I did by means of a knife 
fixed at the end of a long stick, which enabled me to cut the 
cord while standing at a safe distance. I then with a long 
hook pulled off the cords from the animal's snout. I never 
freed them all at the same time, but usually left several days 
before allowing all to enjoy their liberty: They had by that 
time become accustomed to one another, and no more fights 
of the kind above described occurred again. 
After the alligators have been some little time in the basin 
and have become quite quiet, the question of feeding them 
arises. There is no hurry about taking any immediate steps, 
for these creatures, like snakes, can go without food for 
months together. The first food that I gave them consisted 
of the lungs of horses and cattle, which I cut into small pieces 
and threw into the water. I fed them only on the hottest 
