70 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



everything but the proper food, this would probably be 

 the case. Placed in water matching the temperature 

 of their native bayous, a brood of alligators born in 

 the New York Zoological Park increased from a length 

 of seven inches to the substantial size of over five feet 

 within five years' time. This is one of numerous 

 observations on the growth of young alligators made in 

 that institution. In the description of the alligator the 

 writer will explain, with more detail, the rapidity of 

 growth. 



Apparently the most gigantic of the crocodilians is 

 the Indian Gavial, Gavialis gangeticus, confined to 

 northern India, where it inhabits the Ganges and the 

 Brahmapootra rivers and their tributaries, thence ex- 

 tending westward along the Indus and its water-ways. 

 Wide portions of the rivers, where the speed of the 

 current is much reduced, seem to be the favorite lurking 

 places ; on ad j oining banks or island-bars, solitary mon- 

 sters have their basking places. The very young and 

 partially-grown individuals are more sociable, living in 

 considerable numbers in shallow basins some distance 

 from the river, though filled by the latter's erratic rising 

 and falling under influence of the freshets. 



Like many of the crocodilians, the Gavial is a timid 

 animal, dashing into the silty, opaque water at the sight 

 of man, to show, some time later, merely a pair of green- 

 ish, cat-like eyes and the extreme, lumpy tip of the 

 snout. Again alarmed, there is no commotion. The 

 creature sinks noiselessly, when a few viscid bubbles 

 break on the brown current. Judging from the mass- 

 ive structure of a big specimen, one might be led to 

 believe it would literally wallow for the water when 

 frightened. Conditions are quite to the reverse. The 

 great body is raised well from the ground when the 



