The nest
is raised higher and higher by a fresh layer of grass, cut with the great
water-lizard's sharp teeth, every time more eggs are laid, until it is as
high as a cock of hay. The eggs take a month to hatch; but as soon as the
young alligators are out of the shell, they are quite able to run about and
get their own living.
A gentleman who was looking after some building in a lonely part of South
America,
"Where on the mighty river banks,
La Platte and Amazon,
The Cayman, like an old tree trunk,
Lies basking in the sun."
caught a baby-alligator, and made it so tame that it would follow him about
the house like a dog.
It must have been a strange sight to see this little creature, born in a
rushy swamp, scrambling upstairs after his master; but stranger still to
see him lying on the rug before the fire, with his head resting upon the
cat, of whom he had become so fond that he was restless and uncomfortable
when she was not near him.
He was fed on raw meat and milk, and was shut up in cold weather, like the
tame swallow, in a box lined with wool; but, alas! one frosty night the
poor little pet was forgotten, and next morning found him dead, killed by
the cold. How often we find that the stories of pet animals, especially
wild ones which have been made unnaturally tame, have had a sad ending!
The Blind-worm, so called from its small eyes--and yet these tiny eyes are
brighter than some larger ones--is a kind of lizard without legs, and is,
on that account, sometimes included in the Snake-family.
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