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In suitable localities, along the banks of the Amazon, these 

 reptiles may be often seen asleep — stretched out enjoying the 

 hot sun in the day time; where, upon being disturbed, they quick- 

 ly take to the water. At night they are both noisy and active, 

 keeping to the water entirely, exposing only their heads as they 

 swim about in search of their prey. Humboldt, in his South 

 American travels, frequently saw jacar^s basking in the sun 

 during the day time " with open jaws, motionless, their uncouth 

 bodies often covered with birds." 



It has been said that our Florida alligator may attain a length 

 of at least 18 feet, though the average adult rarely exceeds 15 

 feet. They are far more fierce and dangerous than their South 

 American cousins, and will, whenever opportunity offers, attack 

 both men and many quadrupeds. Strange to say, negro flesh is 

 preferred above all other kinds by the alligator, and as a conse- 

 quence these people are the avowed enemies of this famous rep- 

 tile. Alligators get into the soft mud and lie dormant during 

 the winter season. This fact is well known to the southern 

 negro, and he unearths him from such places, with the double 

 intention of destroying his enemy and obtaining his tail, which, 

 cooked after their fashion, they esteem a great delicacy. 



Many years ago when in Mexico, the writer heard, for the first 

 time, the terrific roaring of the old male alligators. This oc- 

 curred during the evenings, and especially during the mating 

 season, when the forest-lined banks of the Coatzacoalcos River 

 were made to resound with the harsh bellowings of this dreaded 

 amphibian. The sounds emitted by a lot of bulls are no more to 

 be compared to the concert of several of these than are the prat- 

 tlings of so many babies to the boomings of a battalion of bit- 

 terns. Some say that they have even imagined that the very 

 earth seemed to tremble beneath their feet when the performers 

 were at no great distance off. 



Although alligators are generally supposed to be polygamous, 

 still during the pairing season the males engage in the most 

 deadly combats, choosing the shallower parts of the elements in 

 wdiieh they live as the place for the battle-ground. They work 

 each other up to the fighting point by several not-to-be-despised 

 taps with their tails. These increase in severity as the anger of 

 the combatants begins to boil, and then the powerful jaws come 

 into play, — and when they do take hold, the grip of the biggest 



