The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-04-21
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$50 80

The value of the head is aScertained by
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, of
course. upon his good fortune in finding
the game One of the most expert of
these gives as instances of successful
hunts the items of three days work
which yielded thirty-nine dollars and
seventy-iive cents; of six days with a
yield of twenty dollars and ten cents,
and of eight days hunting which Melted
forty dollars 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 a business,
and try to make living by capturing or
killing him. Very many have eaten ALI
gator steaks from simple curiosity to
learn its flavor; but many more eat it
because it is the cheapest, and, often
times. the only meat they can afford.
The flavor when it is fried or broiled is
that of beafsteak plentitully supplied
with fish gravy, while the fore-legs roast
ed taste like mixture of chicken and
fish, and have delic ate fibre.
Very methodical in his habits is the
alligator, 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,
low water. If he has a land journey to
perform, he goes and comes by the same
route, never deviating from it until he
sees evidence that strangers have tres
passed on his domain. He lives on the
banks of some stream, for he has decided
objections to stagnant water, and to
make his home he digs a hole at least
twelve inches below the level ot the
water. This hole is perfectly straight,
although on an incline, and from twenty
to thirty feet in length, terminating in
chamber sufficiently large to admit of his
turning in it. There he or she dwells
alone, save when the female is caring for
a very young brood, in which case the
room is converted into nul sery. Full
grown alligators not only do not 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. Sc
Letting a 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,
oftentimes 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 con
venient fer her purpose. On the day fol
INV tliO toiii i.It'Oii vi tiiSSS PiN pii
tons she lays from thirty to fifty eggs
on the prepared ground, and piles over
them dried grass and mud deity worked
in with sticks until a 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 as nearly air tight as possible,
the female visits it each day, covering
with mud any crevces that may have
appeared, as we'll as lemodeling such
portions as do not satisfy her sense of
beauty.
The ordinary time of incubation is
about two months, and then the newly
Matched brood may be heard yelping and
snar.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 III the side of the mound.
out of which the young ones, barely
more than eleven inches long, come
III lllC illOsI NlSolouS ihtIutI,
crawling directly towards the water.
Until the young are three years old the
mother exercises parental care of them,
always remaining within sound of their
voices, not SO much to protect them from
their natural enemy man, as from their
unnatural enemy their father, who has
an especial fondnesS for his own children
in the way of food.
When then the hunter finds nest, he
carries 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