CROCODILIDAE 469 



During the breeding season, from the end of May to the beginning 

 of July, the males are very active, wandering about to various 

 ponds and rivers in search of the females. Fierce battles are 

 said- to take place during this time between the excited males; 

 and the mutilated specimens that one sees are weighty evidence 

 for the truth of this assertion. It is in the breeding season 



also that their bellowing is mostly heard, and more in the night 

 than during the day. I have frequently heard them, while lying 

 in the swamps at night, when they were in ponds fully a mile 

 distant. 



" The largest specimen I saw measured 1 2 feet in length ; and 

 none of the many hunters and other natives of Florida I have 

 met have seen any longer than 13 feet. All the hunters agree 

 that it is only the males that acquire the great size ; no one had 

 ever seen a female that measured over 8 feet, and the majority 

 are not over seven. 



"The male has a heavier, more powerful' head, and during 

 the breeding season especially is more brilliantly coloured. The 

 more brilliant colour occurs in patches and streaks on the sides 

 of the head and body ; it is generally a light yellow, or even 

 whitish, and on one large male I saw a fairly bright red spot 

 over each eye. 



" The alligators are rapidly diminishing in numbers under the 

 stimulus of the high prices offered to the hunters for their hides. 

 Both Whites and Indians make increasing war upon them. 

 Several thousand skins were brought into the little station of 

 Fort Pierce in 1890. The pioneers and settlers always destroy 

 the nests and eggs, because the alligators eat their pigs ; and the 

 cleaned eggs and young alligators are sold by hundreds in the 

 curio shops farther north. As their numbers diminish in Florida 

 it is noticed that the Moccasin snakes increase. In Louisiana 

 also the alligators are disappearing ; and there the musk-rats are 

 at the same time increasing, and are doing much damage by 

 burrowing in the levees along the Mississippi. While the 

 alHgator can make a very stout fight, I have never seen one 

 offer fight if there was any chance of retreat. They never offered 

 to molest us, even when we waded through the ponds where they 

 were. 



" The nest of the alligator is very large, and is built by the 

 female. A great quantity of dead leaves and twigs, together with 



