404 
SPANISH HAITI. 
and the males to devour them; and to this, and not 
to their predilection for the flesh of dogs, are we to 
ascribe the eagerness with which they scud away, 
agitated by that voice which in the one case is the 
thrilling cry of danger, and in the other, the exciting 
announcement of food. 
This susceptibility to he excited by hearing a 
cry associated with peculiar instincts and appetites, 
has other parallels in other animals. A very strik- 
ing analogy is to be found in Wilson’s anecdote of 
the Cat-bird. 
The Alligator’s motion when prowling is lite- 
rally a crawl ; and in their posture of attack they 
stand with their bodies off the ground, and make their 
onsets by successive leaps, the arched back mentioned 
by Humboldt being then a peculiar and distin- 
guishing trait of their anger. 
An occurrence related to me, that happened to 
a Spanish priest on the banks of the Guayabino, 
will best illustrate at once the predaceous vehe- 
mence and lurking patience of the Alligator. The 
large savanna rivers in Spanish Haiti flow through 
wdde but gently descending borders, carpeted with 
grass, and interspersed with thickets and clumps of 
flowering shrubs and forest trees. The grass has all 
the clean verdure of a lawn, and the clumps the 
variety and arrangement of ornamental shrubberies, 
and the earth is deep and loamy. These are favourite 
sporting grounds. Beside being verdant and beau- 
tiful, they are notoriously the game country. My 
friend and his companions, who counted some four 
in number, had divided themselves, trusting to the 
