LESSON XXXVIII.
EL LAGARTO.
Basking upon a log he lies;Around him skim the dragon flies;Above the squirrel drums his tune;The rabbit steals along the brake,And trembles lest his footsteps wakeThe tyrant of the still lagoon.
Basking upon a log he lies;Around him skim the dragon flies;Above the squirrel drums his tune;The rabbit steals along the brake,And trembles lest his footsteps wakeThe tyrant of the still lagoon.
Basking upon a log he lies;Around him skim the dragon flies;Above the squirrel drums his tune;The rabbit steals along the brake,And trembles lest his footsteps wakeThe tyrant of the still lagoon.
Basking upon a log he lies;
Around him skim the dragon flies;
Above the squirrel drums his tune;
The rabbit steals along the brake,
And trembles lest his footsteps wake
The tyrant of the still lagoon.
LURKING.
LURKING.
The alligator is an American crocodile.[71]The order crocodilia, which includes the gavial of India, the true crocodile of the Nile, the cayman of the Orinoco region, and the American alligator, is plentiful in Florida and some of our other Southern States, andtakes its scientific name from the Mississippi River,[72]one of its favorite homes. The name alligator is of Spanish origin,el lagarto, the lizard, and was given by the early Spanish explorers of our Southern States because this was the greatest lizard they had ever seen.
This American crocodile, the alligator, is one of the best-known creatures in the world. Being easily caught, and easily reared, it is seen in the cheapest shows, museums, and menageries, and in many public aquariums and zoological gardens.
For my own part I never felt a deeper sympathy with any wretched beast than I did with a pair of alligators in the Brighton Aquarium, England. Lying in a grotto, where all that could be done in the way of providing them with a few inches of water, and a certain amount of damp heat had been done to testify to the general good will of their keepers, were those miserable exiles from their hot, native lagoons. I fancied that among the mists and raw cold of “John Bull’s tight little island” these creatures longed, as I did, for the vivid blaze of a southern sun.
While an alligator basking on a log in hot sunshine, deep water close at hand to slip into for safety, is a picture of intense lazy enjoyment, an alligator blinking at an electric light in an aquarium, a chilly beast stretched upon wet stones, seems in his stillness a picture of apathetic misery. I doubt if either of the beasts in the aquarium could have roused to enough interest in life to snap at its favorite food, a puppy, had one ventured near. They did not even show appreciation of the fact that a person likemyself, with a toleration for dog-days, and a hearty longing for palmettoes, trumpet-creepers, magnolias, and red-birds, was looking at them with sympathy and a gleam of kindness!
The adult alligator is easily taken prisoner by being seized from behind as it lies basking; its legs are securely bound, its mouth muzzled, and then—away to a showman’s cage! The Orinoco cayman and the Mississippi alligator are often captured in the following curious fashion. A hook baited with some small animal, which the alligator especially likes as food, is dropped into the water, and when seized by the alligator, the hook which is not sharp, but blunt and double, is arranged to expand and fill the creature’s throat, but will not pierce or tear it. Then by pulling at the chain or rope attached to this hook, the brute is drawn ashore. A strong man next leaps on its back, grasps its fore-legs and draws them bridle-wise back to serve as reins. Thus mounted the captor maintains his seat as on a fractious horse, during all the creature’s plunges and tail-lashing, until finally it succumbs, fairly worn out by its own battle. Once entirely exhausted, it becomes weak, mild, and obedient.
The food of the alligator is squirrels, rabbits, water-rats, water-fowl, fish, hares, and young dogs, but it will attack men and kill children if it has opportunity. Its method of preying is much like that of the Nile crocodile; the victim is first pulled under the water and drowned, and then eaten at leisure.[73]The alligator seems to know that while he is merely enjoying a little agreeable change under the surface of the water, his prey will drown.
Why does not the water rush into the lungs of the alligator, and so smother it, as the alligator is a lung-breathing animal? Because it has at the base of its tongue an interior collar which expands and guards the passages to the lungs when it is under water. When it wants a mouthful of air it elevates its head above water while its hands hold its victim below the surface.
The alligator is a smaller animal than the crocodile, its length being from five to ten feet; its head is shorter and broader than that of the crocodile, and its snout is more obtuse. The large, long teeth on the lower jaw do not, as in the crocodile, fit into external furrows on the upper jaw, but into pits made there to receive them. The hind legs and feet of a crocodile have a jagged fringe which the alligator does not have; the alligator’s hind feet are webbed only about half way up the toes, and the crocodile’s hind feet are webbed to the very tip.
Despite the strong musky odor of the alligator’s flesh, it has sometimes been eaten: so also there are people who will eat crocodile’s flesh and eggs. To a civilized appetite no flesh could be more loathsome.
The alligator’s bill of fare is not confined to the living creatures we have just mentioned as furnishing its favorite food. Alert for its breakfast, this pirate of the lagoons and bayous gathers up fish, flesh, and fowl for its table, but swallows, as a condiment, whatever comes handy. An old rubber shoe floating in the water, an empty soda-water bottle, a lost jack-knife, a battered tin can, a stone as big as an orange, part of a broken lamp,—any of these are welcomed as servingto fill the yawning vacancy in its stomach, and to aid in grinding up more digestible food. Similarly an ostrich will swallow a horseshoe, a table-knife, a spoon, a leather strap and buckle, a few spools of thread, or any other trifle left in its way, seeming to consider its stomach, as a school-boy does his pocket, a general receptacle for almost anything that comes to hand!
Baby alligators make rather amusing pets for a number of months, before they begin to exhibit hereditary traits, when they at once fail to be agreeable. They will eat eggs, raw or cooked meat, rats, mice, birds, frogs, toads. They learn to come when they are called, enjoy hearing a whistle, and, on rare occasions, show some slight degree of gratitude and affection, amiable characteristics which they speedily outgrow. When these baby alligators are a few months old, they must be killed or put back into the water where their relatives live.
Alligators are usually silent animals, but in the spring, when the eggs are being laid, they all become noisy and excited, and bellow like buffaloes. A number of adult alligators roaring together make a sound like distant heavy thunder.
The mother alligator builds with her front feet a mound of mud, or sand, though if she finds a mound just to her taste, she takes that, and saves herself trouble. In the mound she places her eggs, and in due time the sun hatches them. The eggs of reptiles are not enclosed in hard, brittle shells, as those of birds, but in a thick, tough, elastic skin, as if the white skin that lines a bird’s egg-shell had grown parchment-like and served instead of shell. The eggs are the size of hen’s eggs, but more pointed.
As soon as the little alligators come from the egg, they scuttle off to the water and are ready to fight their enemies and begin their predatory lives. As they are smaller and less fierce than the gavials, caymans, or true crocodiles, they are far less destructive. An alligator of twelve feet long is a giant of his kind. Not only are the alligators smaller than crocodiles, but they have fewer teeth, and are “less handy with their tails,” not being able to strike out quite so vigorously.
The alligator is among the animals that are disappearing before perpetual hunting and the presence of men about their old haunts. They are still numerous, but fewer than they were some years ago. They will die out speedily unless people undertake to raise them on alligator farms. And why should people do that? For the sake of their skins. Alligator skins make a strong and handsome leather, very beautiful for bags, portmanteaus, purses, boots, portfolios; and for the sake of their skins they should be reared.
FOOTNOTES:[71]A trueCrocodilus Americanus, long overlooked or mistaken for an alligator, has been discovered in America.[72]Alligator Mississippiensis.[73]The alligator, like the crocodile, can close the nostril opening and remain under water for some time.
[71]A trueCrocodilus Americanus, long overlooked or mistaken for an alligator, has been discovered in America.
[71]A trueCrocodilus Americanus, long overlooked or mistaken for an alligator, has been discovered in America.
[72]Alligator Mississippiensis.
[72]Alligator Mississippiensis.
[73]The alligator, like the crocodile, can close the nostril opening and remain under water for some time.
[73]The alligator, like the crocodile, can close the nostril opening and remain under water for some time.