THE ALLIGATOR 
T is needless to say that the alligator is safe fora. 
pet only when it is quite young. In fact, when it. 
is less than a year old, for then it attains a length. 
= of eighteen inches. When two years old it is two: 
=~ feet in length, and too large for a pet. The baby 
alligator, brought North for a pet, is too often 
doomed to an early death, for it needs the heat of 
the tropics to make it comfortable. 
The pet alligator started life as an egg, not much 
larger than a hen’s egg, but somewhat longer. This 
egg, with from forty to sixty others, was laid in a nest 
by. the mother alligator in the sand of the shore of 
some stream. The nest with its many eggs she 
covered with dead leaves and twigs, so that it made a 
mound two feet high, and about eight feet in diame- 
ter. Under these bed clothes, and with the heat of 
the southern sun, the eggs hatched into tiny alligators 
from six to eight inches long. The mother kept 
watch of her nest, and when the young hatched, she 
led them to shallow waters, where there were plenty 
of small fish, and fewer of great creatures that fed 
upon small alligators. 
The alligator reaches maturity in four or five years 
in its own hot lagoons of Florida. Some attain a 
length of twelve to fifteen feet, but such specimens 
are rarely found now, because the slaughter of these 
creatures has been merciless. The alligator’s way of 
fighting is to use its tail to knock down its prey, and 
sweep it into its open jaws. The tail is about one- 
half the length of the entire creature, and strikes a 
stunning blow. The great jaws are armed with 
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