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Alligator — Part 3
If discovered in its basking place and the escape is not cut off the wild alligator will always rush for the water in clumsy fashion, plunge in and dive out of sight. So great is this reptile's fear of man that no matter what may be the size of the saurian, from a twelve-inch "barker" up to a twelve-foot bull that shakes the night air of the lagoons with his bellowings, the same shyness is to be noted. A man may with perfect safety go bathing in waters inhabited by alligators and feel assured that his presence has inspired the reptiles to place a substantial distance between him and themselves.
The food of the alligator consists of fish, mammals and birds. The younger individuals feed largely upon the former, together with frogs, tadpoles and insects. Water fowl fall the frequent prey of the big specimens which approach the unsuspecting quarry from below as the latter paddle upon the surface. A ten-foot alligator can easily swallow a medium-sized duck, entire.
If the prey is too large to be swallowed whole, it is shaken violently and thus torn. This shaking process is so vigorous that the entrails of the prey are often sent flying for a distance of twenty feet or more. Sometimes, when swimming for shallow water, there to swallow the food, another alligator is met and the two reptiles indulge in a not altogether bad-tempered tearing up of the food. Each takes a firm hold and turns around bodily in the water in an opposite direction from that of the adversary. The manoeuvre soon divides the morsel. As the throat of the alligator is furnished with a valve-like development, the reptile is able not only to open its mouth, but to break the bones of its prey while under water in a series of masticatory movements and without a drop of water passing beyond the valve, which is voluntarily opened and closed. To swallow its food the alligator must raise its head above the water. This it sometimes does by lurching suddenly upward while in deep water and swallowing with a single gulp. It more frequently comes to shallow places to swallow the prey. In this habit it differs from other semi-aquatic reptiles--like the turtles. The latter not only swallow their food beneath the surface, but are unable to eat otherwise. The writer witnessed the greediness of a very large alligator, illustrated in a tragic manner. As a dog, weighing about fifty pounds, unwarily approached the edge of this creature's tank, it was suddenly grasped and before completing its first yelp of terror was dragged beneath the surface. A few minutes later the twelve-foot saurian appeared at the top, holding the dead canine in its jaws. The dog was shifted about, amid the sound of breaking bones, and swallowed head first, and entire, after a few gulps.
Among reptiles, the alligator is unique in giving voice to a loud noise, or bellow. In the Southern swamps the night air carries the call of a large individual for a mile or more. The "bellowing" of an alligator is hard to describe, as it varies greatly in cadence according to the size of the reptile, and from a sound like the gentle "mooing" of a cow with the small alligator of about five feet, ranges to a thundering and tremulous blast of the big male--ten feet or more in length. As the patriach gives voice to his roars, the scent glands--on the under-surface of the chin--are opened and fine, steamy jets of a powerful, musky-smelling fluid float off into the heavy, miasmatic atmosphere of the bayou. The odour may be carried for miles and to the negroes it always signifies, "a big, ol' 'gator."