Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1870-12-16
.9LLIG.gTORS.

Just imagine black, slimylooking liz
ard, from ten to twenty feet long, and you
have him exactly. a drtier, nastier-look-
ing creature can be seen nowhere. He is
odoriferous too-the wrong way. Where
they are often hunted and much shot at,
alligators become very timid and shy, and
avoid men instinctively. In wilder parts
of the country they are sometimes fierce
and troublesome. AS they crowd the
banks of the rivers, travellers have fine
sport in shooting at them, and even boast of
killing great many; indeed, to hear the
accounts of the cockneys when they come
down the st. Johns river, you would ex-
,ect TO find the stream covered with the
floating carcasses of dead gators. But in
truth the creature is very hard to kill in
three days journey on the st. Johns, saw
some three hundred shots fired, and only
one alligator killed outright. He was
struck in the eye; his brain was penetrat-
cd, and1>e lay like a log. Another was
made very sick by ball in the neck, and
has had a stiff neck ever since.
They are not sociablo creatures; l have
seen hundreds, and never two of them to-
have his own stretch of river-shore or his
own side of pond, or the whole of it if a
small one, and allow no intrusion by 9TH
ers of his kind. l have often heard the ne
gro sIeersman call out, "Get your guns;
dars de place where the big gator lives !"
and there he would be sure enough-mon-
arch Of all lie surveyed. Alligators are te-
,ft l,1i pinl
ano Their trcspassos, there is big fight
generally ending by the stronger eating the
weaker.
The female piles up in the swamp mass
Of mud and leaves for nest, that the suns
heat may hatch her eggs. She is then pc
culiarly savage, and will attack anything.
a friend Of mine found one of these nests,
and standing on it employed himself in
raking out the eggs and throwing them
against tree, much to the detriment of
the young, unmatched alligators, who had
not been consulted. There was another
party, however, who thought that she had
right to an opinion in the matter, and that
was the female alligator. rustic in the
bushes, rush, and then big pair of jaws
swapping between his legs. She was so
mad that she missed her aim. Ny friend
is slow mani never saw him even walk
iast-but on This occasion he did not wait
to apologize; there was then exhibited
some of the tallest jumping, tumblng and
running ever seen in Florida or anywhere
else. The female will not allow the male
to approach her nest. lie has gluttonous
habit Of eating all the eggs, thus necessi-
lating her laying more, which she does not
like TO do. SO, whenever she catches him
IN Shat neighborhood, she thrashes him on
general princples--he either has done mis-
chief or intends it, at any rate, he is med
ding in domestic matters and deserves
sn ubbing am told that it is really anus
ing to see the big bully stick his tail be-
tween his legs and streak off, the very inn
age of a henpencked husband, after one of
these conjugal seedlings. He is not by any
means a model husband and although he
takes it kindly, he revenges himself by
watching until the eggs are really Matched,
and then eats up as many of the causes of
the family dispute as he can catch. Young
alligators don't like to know their own ia
Their.
heard of but few instances where these
creatures have attacked grown men they
are fond of children and show their at
tachment to the offspring of other people
as they do to their own. In one instance,
where man on horseback was crossing
ford he was seized by the leg, but when his
dog plunged in, the alligator left his leg to