The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-04-13

SlG.50I


The value of the head is ascertained by the
number and size of the teeth Dealers mount
especially fine specimens of The skull, but the
greater number have no other value than that
of the ivory they contain
The wages of the hunter depends, ofcourse,
upon his good fortune in finding the game
One of the most expert of these gives as in
stances of successful hunts the items of three
days work which yielded thirty nine dollars
and seventy. five cents; of six days with n
yield OF twenty dollars and ten cents, and of
eight days hunting which Melted forty dol
lars and twenty five cents.
Without speaking of those enemies Of the
"'gator" who hunt him for sport, there are
about two hundred men in the State of Florida
who make business and try to make a liv
ing by capturing or killing him. Very many
have eaten alligator steaks from simple curo-
sty to learn lis flavor; but many more cat it
because it is the cheapt st, and, oftentimes, the
only meat they can afford. The flavor when
il is fried or broiled is that of beafsteak pcn-
tifully supplied with fish gravy, while the
forc-egs roasted taste like mixture of
chicken and fish, and have delicate fibre.
Very methodical in his habits is the alliga-
tor, and very suspicious of anything new
around his home. When he starts out in
search of food it is invariably an hour after
the tide has begun to ebb, and he returns
about four hours after low water If he has
land journey to perform, he goes and comes
by the same route, never devating from it
until he sees evidence that strangers have
trespassed on his domain. He lives on the
banks of some stream, for he has decided OBJ
jections to stagnant water, and TO make hi,
home he digs hole at least twelve inches
below the level of the water. This hole is
perfectly straight, although on an incline,
| and from twenty to thirty feet in length, ter
mnating in Il chamber sufficiently large to
admit of his turning in it. There he or she
dwclls alone, save when the female is caring
| for very yoang brood, in which case the
one room is converted into II nursery. Full
| grown aligators not only do nct occupy
| the same hole, but they will not live near
each other.
The alligator usually lays her eggs about
| the first of July, and during the month of
| June she is busily engaged in preparing the
| cradle for her young Selecting II place on
| the bank of some stream or creek, she begins
work by beating hard and level with her
tail an earth platform about six feet square
She scrapes together with her fore feet, often
| times from distance of fifty yards from the
| proposed nest dried grass, sticks and mud
| until fifteen or twenty cubic feet of material
| is in place convenient for her purpose
| On the day following the completion of
these preparations she lays from thirty to
| fifty eggs on the prepared ground, and
piles over them dried grass and mud
defly worked in with sticks until u mound
| six feet in diameter and three feet high has
been raised. The surface of this is quickly
| hardened by the sun, and in order that it may
be rs nearly air tight as possible, the female
visits it each day, covering with mud any
| orr hnt 40 Will no
remodeling such portions MS do not satisfy
her sense of beauty.
| The ordinary time of incubation is about
| two months, and then the newly-hatchcd
brood may he heard yelping and snarl-
| ing for their mother to continue her work by
releasing them from their prison nest. On
| the second or third day after the first noise
| has been heard, the female bites hole in the
side of the mound, ont of which the young
| ones, barely more than eleven inches long,
come tumbling in the most vigorous manner,
crawling directly towards the water Until
| the young are three years old the mother
exercises parental care of them, always re-
naming within sound Of their voices not so
much To protect them from their natural
enemy man, rs from their unnatural enemy
| their father, VINO has an especial fond
| ness for his own children in the way of food
| When then the hunter finds nest, he car
res the eggs home to hatch them, where he
can easily capture the brood if the eggs are
fresh or if the young in them are not more
than five inches long; at any other stage they
will not hatch if removed and are of no value
except for the shell. The captured eggs are
then packed in straw ms nearly rs possible in
the natural way, and the young may be thus
Matched out very succ esstully. One farmer
reared sixteen hundred and another thou
sand last season. The young will eat immc-
diately after coming out of the shell, but they
thrive best if given no food for at least three
months.