ALLIGATORS 221

asa rule; but G. gangeticus has been known to attain
a length of twenty feet. The alligators, with the excep-
tion of one species (A. szzenszs), found in the Yangtse
Kiang, are exclusively American. Their head is
broad and short; their teeth are very unequal in
size, and the first and fourth teeth in the lower jaw
bite into pits in the upper jaw. Another distinction
is that, whereas in the gharials the plates, or ‘scutes,’
are continuous from head to tail, in the alligators
there is a well-marked division between those of the

 

HEAD OF AN ALLIGATOR

neck and those of the back. There are black alli-
gators in South America as far south as Rio Grande
do Sul; the common North American species is
A. misstssippiensts, but it is not so common as it used
to be, and is now actually being preserved. The
fashion for using alligator hides for bags and purses
made it worth while to shoot alligators in large num-
bers, and even to capture them alive, and start
‘alligator farming’ much as one would do with cattle
or sheep. The alligators, however, lived on the
water-voles, and the result of their captivity or de-