264 LIZARDS AND CROCODILES AT THE ZOO 
in the centre. It seems at first somewhat strange 
that creatures, many of which are of a strength and 
ferocity almost equal to that of the largest carnivora, 
can be kept in safety within the slight barrier formed 
by the incurved railing which surrounds the pool ; 
but the natural strength of the alligator is only 
equalled by its sluggishness, and the hideous beasts 
are content to doze and feed all day in the warm 
and steaming water. The art of crocodile culture is 
now fairly understood, and when the baby “ basilisk ” 
is transferred from the cool depths of the watering-pot 
in which he spends his infancy, in the nurseries 
behind the snakes’ quarters, to the tropical temper- 
ature of the tank, it thrives apace. The monster 
alligator, which now measures some ten feet in length, 
came from the Mississippi when about twelve months 
old, nine years ago. Hideous, huge, and hide- 
bound in armour of horn, it swings round like an 
enormous eft, and as it lies just beneath the surface 
of the water, shows, more clearly than any book can 
picture, the curious adaptation to surroundings , of 
the carnivorous water-lizard. The eyes on their 
raised orbits are set like dormer-windcws in the 
head. The nostrils are two tiny slits in a raised boss 
at the end of the nose ; apparently the sluggish beast 
is a quick breather, for the respirations are at the 
rate of twenty-eight per minute, or nearly double 
those of a man at rest. Another alligator has been 
in the collection for twenty- two years, but does not 
yet equal the size of the later, comer, owing, it is 
