Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/66

58 five or six inches in length, and the female Alligator at once leads them to the water. In general at least half the brood perish before they reach the water; many while yet in the egg; some through the depredations of vultures, who watch the female Alligator when she repairs to the shore to lay; others are devoured by the adult males of their own species, and yet more by the

ravenous fishes and turtles that inhabit the same waters. Both the egg's and the flesh of these reptiles are eaten, though they diffuse a strong musky odour; some Europeans, however, have so far overcome their prejudices as to pronounce them savoury and agreeable.