The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-04-21
The Hem That Hatehed AIIigators.


Eli Perkins writes from Florida to the
Chicago Tribune as follows:
" Did you ever, vice versa, hatch ALI
gators eggs under a hen, Captain %
asked.
"No; but Mr.. Pratt, the editor of the
Palotka Herald, and Colonel Hart, who
has the big orange grove over the river,
have done so, and it was a very curious
experiment, too"
A moment afterwards the Captain in
troduced me to Mr.. Pratt.
"He is a very careful and truthful
man, etc." said the Captain, land the
best authority we have on alligators.
What was it about You and Colonel
Hart Matching alligator's eggs under a
hen, Mr.. Pratt?" / asked.
"Why, yes, we tried it. We Matched
out two htters-one under goose, and
the other under an old hen. The goose
stayed around the nest after the young
gators came, for some time. She was
very much puzzled. She couldn't give
up the idea that they were her goslings,
but still she didn't want to claim them.
So she'd go to see the nest and look in
very mournfully, as men look at the re-
mains at a funeral, and then go away
and think"
"Who fed the little alligators ?"
"Oh, little gators don't eat anything.
They will live for weeks on absolutely
nothing. I've kept gators till they
were foot long, and never given them
anything to eat. They simply lie still
and grow. They live ON air. -"
"What did the old hen do?"
"Well, she was different. She didn't
act like a goose. She was very stub
born old hen. I had tried to break her
up. We'd tied her off the nest, ducked
her in the water, and done everything to
stop her setting, but she would set So
put ten gators eggs under her in the
sand, and let her go at it. thought
she'd got tired; but she sat five weeks
on those eggs, and finally she Matched
out six as lively little gators as you ever
saw. The little fellows. you know. are
quite frolicky. [ saw by the looks of
the old hen the morning the gators
Matched out, that something was up.
The old hen clucked in a slow, motherly
way, as if she was very proud. don't
think she'd seen the gators, though
Well, the second day / threw some corn
around the old hen, and she came off to
eat 1 knew she couldn't go back again
if she ever saw the gators but wanted
to see just what she would do. So Col
onel Hart and watched the nest"
"Did she come back ?"
eyes, and what do you think she did?
Why, she Just clucked around the nest,
as if it was the loveliest brood of white
chickens on earth. Why, the old fool
actually went and sat down on the nest,
and never noticed the difference. [
always knew hens were darned fools.
but | never took them for beastly idiots
before. That hen sat on those little
gators for four days, till the little fell
lows began to crawl out of the nest and
drop into the muddy water. And even
then the old hen stayed around, clucked
to them, and tried to feed them. Col
onel Hart has three of his gators now
in his duck house, two years old, and as
gentle as kittens. They do everything
we tell them to. We are going to break
'em to the bit when they get about six
years old, and use them to draw the
ferryboat between the Lakin House and
Colonel Harris orange grove"
"And the old hen?"
"Well, she's still around She walks
around the gators still, and takes a
motherly pride in them"