Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-29

have a little pipe with tap on the outside
through which it could drain. The tank
should thsn be fixed with putty or cement
leaving no chink for the accumulation q
SO that with slide your alligator. could DC
shut off while the tray is being cleaned, OF
separated from a companion at feeding time;
in fact, you might vary the arrangement III
many ways.
The water for these and for reptiles OF every
kind should always be soft or ram water, and
when changed the fresh supply should be al
lowed to get warm before the creature Is put
back, as otherwise he gets chilled, goes oil MS
feed. and "sulks" for days. :,
/ generally add teacupful OF SO OF fresh
water about once week, to supply what is
lost by evaporation for the heat is great. and
the alligator seems fairly to revel In It,. !,
They are found high up on some OF the
small branches of the Mississippi, where it il
fairly cold, but bury themselves in the mud
there during considerable portion Of the
year. The black alligator occurs as low down
i'll South America as 32 degrees lat. 5.
Don't be alarmed if your alligator refuses
food for the first few weeks after he is in.
stalled in the habitation you have provided
for him, even though he may have taken
generally takes them little time to settle
down. Let him alone, and he will feed in
time.
My alligator was as thin as a herring, and
quite weak when he reached me in a box -'oi
straw from Jacksonville, Florida but he did
mot feed for some weeks after that. Now he
is as fat and saucy as can be desired.
1t is well to splash the meat in close to
their heads as they will often snap at it in
mere anger and then hold it for subsequent
consumption; but take care never to let a
piece Of meat remain in the warm water more
than few hours, as it rapidly spoils.
When you have thrown it in, cover the box
up, SO that the animal can neither see any
thing to disturb him nor be seen. :,
And, with this little precaution, you viii
could wish for-or. rather, as your friends
and relatives could wish; for. if you are
born naturalist you yourself will be above
minding little objections of that sort
I have said that they are remarkably free
from disease. but if one got III and went to a
cause that organ is fixed throughout its whole
length to the bottom of the mouth.
Crocodiles (Which is the name used to de
ncte all these creatures, aligators, crocodiles
and the gavial, of which we will speak further
on) used to be lnmped together with lizards
in tho division of reptiles into groups, be
cause they are so much like them in external
form. but inside they are very different, their
heart, lungs and skeleton being much more
like those of animals higher up in the scale.
These creatures have little. plates Of bone
inside their great rough scales. have a
number of them taken from dead specimens
and they are very pretty and curious objects
beautifully white and covered with pattern
like carved ivory. They look, something like
fancy biscuits, and never knew anybody who
had not seen them before guess what they
were.
Some extinct species which we now know
only as fossils were completely surrounded
and clothed with these plates or scutes like a
suit of arnor.
You will note that an alligator or crocodile
has shutter, like white ground glass, which
it can pull over each eve at viii, just as a
Thev have five toes on the fore-feet and
four on the hind, slightly webbed,. but the
legs are short and weak compared to the
bnlky body, so that although they paddle
ieisurely along through the water as a rule,
when they are in hurry they turn the legs
back close to the body. so as to offer the
least resistance. and swim by the propelling