Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-11-15
The Hen and the Alligator.

on the sand, with no one 10 modest them.
Now and then q passing shot from some
fool on steamboat wakes one up, when
he opens both eyes wide, takes one look
around, and sinks in the water till the
fool gets by. The chances of killing an
alligator with rifle are about one in 500.
Unless you hit him in the eye, you have
no chance at all. His throat and the lit
tie tender spot under his fore legs, are
always well covered. The bone of the
alligators head-that is, his long skull
is at least an inch thick. Nothing but
the ball from field-battery would dis
turb him at all. Buckshot would be moth
ing but mosquito-bites to an old alliga-
tor. Alligators lay their eggs in the
sand, in sunny place where the tenn
perature is sure to be warm enough TO
sustain animal growth. II cold snap
comes, it kills the life of the egg, just the
same as the chickens die in a hens egg
when the old hen stops off too long. In
the case of the alligator the warm sand
is the nest, and the sun is the old hen.
The sun sits on the nest all day, and gets
il so warm that it continues to keep warm
during the night. The ostrich is lazy
bird, and like the alligator it shirks the
"setting'' business off on the sun. In
fact, there is no need of any bird "set-
ting" on its eggs in the Tropical regions.
Captain Larkin tells me that he has
Matched goose-eggs and hen s-eggs in the
warm sand.
~ place them just as the alligator
does" said the Captain, "where they
are continually warm, with the small
end of the egg up and just sticking
through the sand. L spread blanket
over them a. night, and at the end OF
three weeks the chickens jump out and
commence eating the musquitoes.'
"Did you ever, vice versa, hatch
alligator's eggs under a hen, CaptainP"
I asked.
mo; 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 very curious
experiment, too"
A moment afterwards the Captain in
troduced me to Mr.. Pratt. ''He is avery
careful and truthful man, ETC." said the
Captain, "and the best authority we have
on alligators."
"What was it about you and Colonel
Hart Matching alligator's eggs under a
hen, Mr.. Prattp" / asked.
"Why, yes, we tried it. We Matched
out two litters-one under goose, and
the other under an old hen. The goose
staid 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 the nest and look in very
mournfully, as men look at the re-
mains at funeral, and then go away
and think"
"Who fed the little alligatorsP"
20, 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 any
thing 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 the goose. She was very stub
born old hen. 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 90 at it. l thought
She get tired but she sat five weeks on
those eggs, and finally they 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 that the gators Matched
out, that something was up. The old
hen clucked in slow, motherly way, as
il she was very proud. l 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 !
knew she wouldn't go back again if she
ever saw the gators; but | wanted to see
Just what she would do. So Colonel
Hart and l watched the nest"
"Did she come backpn
"Yes, and what do you think she didp
Why, she Just clucked around the nest, as
if it was the lovelest brood of white chick
ems 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 fellows began to crawl out
of the nest and drop into the muddy wa
ter. And even then the old hen staid
around, clucked to them, and tried to
feed them. Colonel Hart has three of
those 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 them to the bit when they
get about six years old, and use them TO
draw the ferry-boat between the Larkin
House andColonel HART orange-grove.
"And the old hemp
swell, she's still around. She walks
around the gators still and takes moth
erly pride in them. "-EH Perkins, in
| CHICAGO Tribune.