Description.—Body long and thick, protected by regular transverse rows of bony plates; head long and flat, the mouth extremely large, extending behind the eyes, and furnished in each jaw with a single row of teeth; the tongue very short and fleshy; it is attached to the lower jaw throughout its whole extent; ears closed externally. The tail is long and taper, strongly compressed on both sides, and surmounted towards its origin with a double series of keel-like plates, which gradually converge towards the middle of the tail, there uniting and forming a single row to the extremity. On the hind-feet are four toes, more or less perfectly united with membranes; the forefeet have five long and separate.

Size.—It grows to the length of fourteen or fifteen feet.

THE alligator, properly so called, inhabits the fresh waters of the Southern States of America. According to the account of Messrs. Dunbar and Hunter, they encountered one as high as latitude 32½° N., but its particular and special haunts are the rivers, lagoons, and swamps, of Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas; preference being given to a stagnant pond, or sluggish creek, rather than a swift running stream or river.

In some districts they may be seen in numbers, protruding their long snouts through the leaves of aquatic plants, as they watch for their prey; sometimes basking in the sun on the bank, or floating on the surface of the water.