Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-12-10
Home of the Alligator.

Our home and tire home of our nearest
neighbor are in sight of each other. In
tervening between them there is the mar
gin of a lake with a bed of saw-grass.
In this a huge alligator yearly builds her
nest, and deposits her two dozen great
eggs. When she is at last dislodged or
destroyed, the scene will have lost fine
accent of the sub-trOpics. This summer
her domestic affairs have furnished me
an interesting chapter of her life history.
There is chain Of small lakes just
here, in one or another of which the old
alligator or her mate, or both, may be
seen at any favorable time for. them to
appear at the surface. But in the spring
the pair resort to the first mentioned
lake, and, at night and in the early morn
ing, are heard believing and gamballing
in the water and saw-grass until the lay
weather an old alligator may be seen
by day slowly swimming up and down
the middle of the lake, but the labors of
nest-building are accomplished in the
night, and the frequent peregrinations
of the pair are made under cover of dark
ness. 1t would have been interesting to
watch the females methods of applying
such apparently ill-adapted implements
as her enormous mouth and short legs
to the work of building, but with her
choice of hours and location, she left me
only the privilege of inspecting the re-
suits of her labors.
Saw-grass served as material for the
nest, as well as for a screen to conceal
it's position, twenty-five feet away from
the water. This grass grows as high as
a man, and faourishes in shallow water,
or upon land that overf1owed during the
rainy season The blades have a stiffen-
ing angle like an caves gutter made of
two boards. The edges are serrated,
and cut through the skin and flesh like
a sharp scroll-saW when the hand is
passed downward against them. 1t is
possible to pass through saw-grass by
bending it forward. so that the teeth
draw backward instead of forward
mers years growth, and broke up a
mass of it in small pieces. In this coarse
haycOck the eggs were imbedded. and
with the final additions of the material,
the structure was over two feet high.
The heavy and frequent summer rains
soon wet the nest thoroughly, causing de-
cay and a degree of spontaneous warmth
which contributed 20 the incubation of
the eggs. This process. it appears, is a
very long one in the case of alligator
eggs, as the nest under observation was
made in April. and the eggs Matched out
the middle of September.
After the completion of the nest This
year. the aliigators remained in the other
neighboring lakes for the most part.
Only occasionally one of them might be
seen patrolling the vicinity of the lest,
like some submarine vessel with little
Of its back and prov above water. But
when the youn~ alligators were due, the
old female reappeared in our lake, and
evidently paid close attention to the
nest. Whenever | moved my boat to-
wards the saw-grass at this time the al
ligator was there, and retreated TO the
middle of the lake without disappearing
under water as usual apparently anx-
ious enough to keep her eye upon me.
Now numerous tiny alligators appeared
in the grassy water in front of the nest.
betraying their presence by their in
fantile croaking, and the bright yellow
stripes of their tails, which they had not
the intelligence to conceal when hiding
the rest of their bodies. Their length
proved to be nine or ten inches. Upon
examining the nest I found that the old
alligator had dug out the entire heart of