46 



NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



sistent. Prudence precipitated 

 proceedings, possibly perceiving 

 proposals. Pyrrhus professed. 

 Prudence purred, puttered, pro- 

 pounded problems, puzzles. 

 Pyrrhus's powerful, passionate 

 pleadings prevailed. Prudence, 

 pensive, poutingly promised. 



Parsimonious Polybidas prayed 

 Phyllis's papa's permission. Par- 

 son Pettigrew permitted Polybi- 

 das's preferment. Polybidas 

 preached post-prandially, prayed 

 Phyllis's pardon; proposed primi- 

 tively. Phyllis promised, profess- 

 ing profound passion. 



Pagan Philsander preferred Pris- 

 cilla, puting, pampered plebeian. 

 Punctilious Priscilla proscribed 

 Philsander, providentially pro- 

 claiming pessimists positively pro- 

 voking profligates. Philsander 

 purloined poison, partook; purga- 

 tory. 



Pedantic Paricles panegyrized 

 Pandora, proposing partnership; 

 prognosticating prominent public 

 position; promising parliament. 

 Pericles prevailed. Pandora pro- 

 nouncing, 'Parcae permitting. 



Pleasing peculiar Pennsylva- 

 nians, pleasantly portrayed. 



Goslow Simon, 

 Pernambuco, Patigonia. 



The Alligator or "Gator." 



(Alligator mississifiiensts.*) 



The common alligator is pleanti- 

 fully found in Florida, and Missis- 

 sippi, the lakes and rivers of Louis- 

 iana and Carolina and similar lo- 

 calities. It is a fierce and danger- 

 ous reptile, in many of its habits 

 bearing a close resemblance to the 

 crocodile, and the other members 

 of the family. 



Unlike the crocodile, however, 

 it avoids the salt water and is but 

 seldom seen even near the mouths 

 of rivers where the tide gives a 

 brackish taste to the waters. It is 

 mostly a fisheater, haunting those 

 portions of the rivers where its 

 prey most abounds, and catching 

 them by diving under a passing 

 shoal, snapping up one or two vic- 

 tims as it passes through them, toss- 

 ing them in the air for the purpose 

 of ejecting the water which has 

 necessarily filled its mouth, catch- 

 ing them adroitly as they fall, and 

 then swallowing them. 



Though timid, as are most rep- 

 tiles as long as their passions are 

 not touched, the alligator has 

 within it a very mine of furious 

 rage, which, when aroused, knows 

 no fear. Urged by a blind instinct 

 that sees no obstacle, and hardly 

 deserves so intelligent a name as 



anger it flings itself upon the as- 

 sailants, and only ceases its attack 

 as its last breath is drawn. 



It is no easy matter to drive the 

 breath out of an alligator, for its 

 life seems to take a separate hold 

 of every fibre in the creatures bod)', 

 and though pierced through and 

 through with bullets, crushed by 

 heavy blows, and its body convert- 

 ed into a very pin-cushion, spears 

 taking the place of pins, it writhes 

 and twists, and struggles with 

 wondering strength, snapping dire- 

 fully with its huge jaws, and lash- 

 dng its muscular tail from side to 

 side with such vigor that it takes a 

 bold man to venture within range 

 of that terrible weapon. 



It is fortunate that its head is 

 not gifted with mobility equal to 

 that of the tail. The alligator can 

 only turn its head very slightly, on 

 account of two bony projections, 

 one on each side of the head, which 

 are efficient obstacles to any but 

 the smallest lateral motion. The 

 antagonist may therefore easily es- 

 cape if on land by springing aside 

 before the reptile can turn. He 

 must however, beware of its tail, 

 for the. alligator when angry sweeps 

 right and left with that powerful 

 member, and deals the most de- 

 structive blows with wonderful ra- 

 pidity. Still the creature would 

 rather avoid than seek a combat, 

 and does not act in this manner un- 

 till driven to desperation. 



Alligators are sometimes caught 

 in a peculiar way. An ordinary 

 line is of very little use as its sharp 

 teeth can cut it in less time than it 

 takes to write. Therefore an alli- 

 gator line is made of several thick- 

 ness of fishlines, each part separ- 

 ate. 



When an alligator finds a hook 

 down its throat it tries to bite the 

 fishline which it cannot do as the 

 different strands get caught in its 

 teeth. 



The eggs of the alligator are 

 small and numerous. The parent 

 deposits them in the sand of the 

 river side, scratching a hole with 

 her paws, and placing the eggs in 

 a regular layer therein. She then 

 scrapes sand, dry leaves, grass and 

 mud over them, smooths it, and 

 deposits a second layer upon them 

 which are covered over in like 

 manner until she has fifty or sixty 

 eggs. Although they are hatched ( 

 by the heat of the sun and the de- 

 caying vegetable matter, the 

 mother does not desert her young, 

 but leads them to the water and 

 takes care of them until they are 

 able to take care of themselves. 



The young are terribly .persecut- 



ed by birds and beasts, and are 

 even in danger of 'being eaten by 

 old males of its own species. Dur- 

 ing the winter months the alligator 

 buries itself in the mud, but a very 

 little warmth is sufficient to make 

 it quit its retreat and come into 

 open air again. 



It sometimes attains a great size 

 though its size is usually six or 

 seven feet; specimens have been 

 found measuring twice that length. 



A live specimen at Central Park, 

 New York, is twelve feet. 



The alligator race threatens to 

 soon become extinct, the same as 

 its northern friend, the seal. At 

 one time alligator skins were sold 

 at from $25 to $100 but a recent 

 item in a local paper says that 

 $2.50 is the average price paid 

 now. Notwithstanding this a firm 

 in Florida has an annual business 

 of $60,000 in that line. Fully 

 59,000 'gators are killed every year 

 and unless the legislature puts a 

 stop to it, they will be, in a few 

 years, only seen in museums. 



The term alligator is a corrup- 

 tion of the Spanish el largarto e i a 

 lizard. Five species are known in 

 various parts of the world, the 

 Jacare or Yacare ( Jacare sclerops) 

 being one of them. 



The reptile found in the tropical 

 parts of America is not an alligator 

 but a crocodile.. The first com- 

 parison with the alligator does not 

 impress one with any considerable 

 sense of difference, but the differ- 

 ence in breadth of the heads, when 

 viewed from above, is very striking. 



That of the crocodile is like its 

 Nile brother, extremely narrow 

 while that of the alligator is heavy, 

 and very wide. The entire "build" 

 of the crocodile is manifestly favor- 

 able to a maritime existence, while 

 that of the alligator is for just such 

 a life as it leads, one of sluggish- 

 ness and inactivity. 



S. A. Pillseurv. 



A Day Afield with Two Texan 

 Conchologists. 



I will give your readers a short 

 description of a day's outing en- 

 joyed by Mr. H. G. Askew and 

 myself one day last April. We 

 left the city of Austin at 5:30 a. m. 

 and arrived at New Braunfels, 

 Comal county at 7:30. After re- 

 freshments with well filled lunch 

 baskets and many empty collecting 

 boxes, we started up the beautiful 

 Comal Creek on the east side work- 

 ing both the creek and valley near 

 the creek, about half way from 

 town to the head spring we crossed 

 to the west side and worked the 



