The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-12-11
Home of;the AlI-0an,r.

gin ola lake with a bed Of saW-grass.'
In thisa huge alligator yearly builds her
nest. and depositsasher~ two dozen great
eggs. :. When she is at last dislodgcd or
destroyed. the scene will have lost fine
accent5of 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, ln one or another of which the old
alligator or her mate, or both. may be
seen at any favorable time for them to
appear ut 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
III the water and saw-grass until the lay
| ing season is past. Sometimes in warm
weather an old alligator may be seen
by day slowly swimming up and down
the middle of the lake, but the labors Of
| ncst-building are accomplished in the
night, and the frequent peregrinations
OF the pair are made under cover of dark
ness. 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
| its position. twenty-five feet away from
the water. This grass grows as high as
a man. and fionrishes in shallow water.
or upon land that oyerhowed during the
rainy season. The blades have stiffcn-
ing angle like an caves gutter made of
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.
The alligator selected dead grass of for
mers years growth, and broke up a
mass OF it III small pieces. In this coarse
haycock the eggs were Embedded. 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 degree of Spontaneous warmth
which contributed to the incubation of
the eggs. This process. it appears, is a
very long one in the case of alligator
eggs, as tho rest under observation was
made in April. and the eggs hatched out
the middle of September :;
After the completion of the nest this
year: the alligators remained in the other
neighboring lakes for the most rart
Only casionally one of them might be
seen patrolling the vicinity of the hest
like some submarine vessel with Il little
of it's back and PROV above water. But
when the youn~ alligators We're due, The
Old female reaDpeared 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
hgator was there, and retreated TO the
middle of the lake without tiisappea ring
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
betraylng their presence by their in,
fantile croaking. and the bright yellow
stripes of their tails, which they had no;
the intelligence to conceal when hiding
the rest of their bodies. Their length
| proved to be nine or ten inches. Upon
examining the nest l found that the old
alligator had dug out the entire heart OF
the heap. The fine, half-rotten material
damp with moisture. was scratched out
to the front of the nest. intermiNed with
FRAGMENTS of the shells and skins Of the
eggs. | found other large pieces of shell
in the water, as if the young ones had
carried them upon their backs as little
chickens sometimes do. The sagacious
conduct of the mother alligator ut this
juncture raises. her above other reptiles
| which leave eggs and young to work out
their own destinies without the ;tten
would not be able to raise their heavy
covering unaided, and some of them al
least might never emerge if not delivered
by the old one. 1t is apparent that they
do not work their own way out of the
nest. as. if that were the case. the egg
shells would be quite broken from thci,
bodies and left behind in the heap in
stead of being dragged into the water
| in some cases almost entire ford
Fla. Cor. New York Evening Post. y