From Goodspeed’s Catalogue. 
LE PETIT CAPORAL, IN “AUDUBON’S BIRDS OF AMERICA.” 
From Goodspeed's Catalogue. 
HAWK OWL, IN “AUDUBON’S BIRDS OF AMERICA.” 
and the heat of the mass hatches the eggs. 
When hatched the young alligators take to this 
pond, and I saw in one pond thirty-two small 
alligators. There evidently were, two hatchings, 
; one smaller than the others. When the water 
| dries up in one of these ponds the ’gators 
) migrate to water. It is said that the male will 
eat the young ones. 
One of these largest fellows must be very old, 
as we see the little ones a year old less than a 
foot long and the next size a few inches longer. 
To show the strength and ability of an alliga- 
j tor: A party of us fishing for tarpon on the 
j Myakka River caught a tarpon weighing 175 
pounds. The gentleman catching it proposed to 
have it mounted, and in the evening left it 
I up on the grass close to the yacht. In the morn¬ 
ing it was gone, and by the place were the tracks 
■ of a large alligator. 
An alligator is an able duck hunter, and where 
the ducks feed and the ’gators live there is often 
’ a chance to see them hunting. My observations 
f were made while tarpon fishing. A flock of 
j ducks would feed along the stream; an alliga¬ 
tor with only his head out (which in size and 
I shape is something like a duck) would glide 
1 along until close to the ducks and then go under, 
and in a moment a duck would go under and 
up would go the others. 
In a few cases we have examined the stomachs 
of alligators, and where there were ducks about, 
we found in the ’gators a bunch of ducks’ feath¬ 
ers, from the size of your fist to twice that. 
We also have found pieces of wood worn smooth 
—always found this—showing that it is used in 
some way in digestion. 
A friend who has a museum wanted a big 
: alligator, so we set about to get him one. The 
captain of the yacht is tin expert on fishing and 
■ ’gator hunting. We ran up to where the big 
| ones live, in small boats. The captain could call 
them up and did call a big one. He shot him, 
I but unfortunately on a steep bank, and the ’gator 
I slid into deep water and not until I rigged a 
> grapjfle with heavy sinker and tarpon hooks did 
, we fish him out. He was eleven and a half 
[ feet long and must have weighed 400 pounds. In 
his stomach we found a drum fish about 2(4 
feet long, pieces of wood and a bunch of feathers. 
The alligator is very easily killed if shot in 
the top of his head. We have twice with a rifle 
shot one there and thinking him dead have taken 
him into the boat, to find shortly that he was 
much alive and that the bullet had glanced off. 
There was something doing until we could finish 
him. 
There is a feeling that these reptiles should 
not be exterminated. This can only be based 
on the preservation of a part of nature, not on 
account of any benefit they are to man. They 
destroy valuable food, pigs, ducks and fish and 
they also kill dogs. 
There is much said and written about the 
preservation of fishhawks, pelicans, cormorants, 
loons and gulls. Their preservation means the 
destruction of great quantities of food fish. This 
would not have been so- important before the 
great amount of net fishing which is already de¬ 
pleting all the waters of this country. To des¬ 
troy these birds and reptiles may take away the 
attractive features for tourists, but it will add 
to our supply of food. Myakka. 
("For notes on growth of alligators see Mr. 
Ditmar’s article on this subject in N. Y. Zoologi¬ 
cal Societies report for 1906.] 
Frogs and Crossbills. 
While stopping at Chapin’s Camp on Beaver 
Lake, in the Adirondacks, in February, Frank 
Baker, who has lived in the North Woods for a 
great many years and is a very intelligent and 
careful observer, told me something which is, 
I believe, very unusual. Mr. Baker is very fond 
of the small woods folks and devotes nearly all 
his spare time to feeding and making friends 
with the birds and animals. While standing 
near the lake shore one day last summer he 
saw several crossbills feeding along the water’s 
edge. Suddenly from out of the grass sprang 
a little green frog and caught the nearest cross¬ 
bill by the head, killing it almost instantly. 
Unable to believe his own eyes, Mr. Baker 
watched and saw the performance repeated ; then, 
declaring that he did not propose to have his 
pets ambushed in this fashion, he procured a 
stick and went to work exterminating all the 
frogs in the vicinity of the camp. And when 
he undertakes a thing, he carries it to the end, 
so that the north shore of Beaver Lake became 
a very unsafe retreat for frogs that season, and 
the little crossbills live in peace in the vicinity 
of the Chapin cabins. While there I saw a num¬ 
ber of them coming, in company with jays, snow 
buntings, sapsuckers and other small fry, to feed 
off the stumps where food was placed regularly 
for them. * 
Mr. Baker had no theories to expound, but 
simply stated the facts, adding that the frogs 
were not large ones, that might swallow a bird 
of this size, but the ordinary frogs found in the 
grass along all waterways. Perhaps they average 
three or four inches in length when stretched out. 
The gentlemen who- were present when Mr. 
Baker related this incident all agreed that they 
had never heard of a similar incident, and were 
curious to know whether the frogs killed the 
birds through annoyance at their presence, as 
seemed likely, or whether their purpose was to 
eat the birds at their leisure. P. D. F. 
Cash for the Audubon Societies. 
It will be remembered that about a year ago, 
the National Association of Audubon Societies, 
by the will of Albert Willcox, received a large 
bequest which—except as to $100,000 of it-—was 
subject to a life interest of his brother, Mr. 
David Willcox. By arrangement between the 
directors of the National Association of Audu¬ 
bon Societies and Mr. David Willcox the legacies 
bequeathed by his brother to the National As¬ 
sociation have now been paid, and the National 
Association has therefore just received the sum 
of $332,770.80. 
This large sum of money will enable the Na¬ 
tional Association to accomplish many things 
that hitherto have been impossible for it through 
lack of funds. All friends of bird and animal 
protection will be gratified to know that this 
has been done. 
