The Audubon Reader (32 page)

The achievements of this species are well known in Europe, where it is even at the present day trained for the chase. Whilst on a visit at
Dalmahoy, the seat of the Earl of Morton near Edinburgh, I had the pleasure of seeing a pair of these birds hooded and with small brass bells on their legs in excellent training. They were the property of that nobleman.

These birds sometimes roost in the hollows of trees. I saw one resorting for weeks every night to a hole in a dead sycamore near Louisville in Kentucky. It generally came to the place a little before sunset, alighted on the dead branches and in a short time after flew into the hollow where it spent the night and from whence I saw it issuing at dawn. I have known them also retire for the same purpose to the crevices of high cliffs on the banks of
Green River in the same state. One winter when I had occasion to cross the
Homochitta River in the State of Mississippi I observed these Hawks in greater numbers than I had ever before seen.

Many persons believe that this Hawk and some others never drink any other fluid than the blood of their victims; but this is an error. I have seen them alight on sand bars, walk to the edge of them, immerse their bills nearly up to the eyes in the water and drink in a continued manner, as
Pigeons are known to do.

[The Great-footed Hawk (Peregrine Falcon),
Falco peregrinus
, appears in Plate 16 of
The Birds of America
.]

One of the most remarkable objects connected with the natural history of the United States that attracts the traveler’s eye as he ascends through the mouths of the mighty sea-like River Mississippi, is the alligator. There, along the muddy shores and on the large floating logs, these animals are seen either lying basking and asleep, stretched to their full length, or crossing to and fro the stream in search of food, with only the head out of water. It is here neither wild nor shy, neither is it the very dangerous animal represented by travelers. But to give you details that probably may not be uninteresting to you, I shall take you to their more private haunts, and relate what I have experienced and seen respecting them and their habits.

In
Louisiana, all our lagoons, bayous, creeks, ponds, lakes and rivers are well stocked with them—they are found wherever there is a sufficient quantity of water to hide them or to furnish them with food, and they continue thus in great numbers as high as the mouth of the
Arkansas River, extending east to
North Carolina and as far west as I have penetrated. On the
Red River, before it was navigated by steam vessels, they were so extremely abundant that to see hundreds at a sight along the shores or on the immense rafts of floating or stranded timber was quite a common occurrence, the smaller on the backs of the larger, groaning and uttering their bellowing noise like thousands of irritated bulls about to meet in fight, but all so careless of man that unless shot at or positively disturbed they remained motionless, suffering boats or canoes to pass within a few yards of them without noticing them in the least. The shores are yet trampled by them in such a manner that their large tracks are seen as plentiful as those of sheep in a fold. It was on that river particularly that thousands of the largest size were killed when the mania of having either shoes, boots or saddle-seats
made of their hides lasted. It had become an article of trade, and many of the squatters and strolling Indians followed for a time no other business. The discovery that the skins are not sufficiently firm and close-grained to prevent water or dampness long, put a stop to their general destruction, which had already become very apparent. The leather prepared from these skins was handsome and very pliant, exhibiting all the regular lozenges of the scales and able to receive the highest degree of polish and finishing.

The usual motion of the alligator when on land is slow and sluggish; it is a kind of labored crawling, performed by moving alternately each leg in the manner of a quadruped when walking, scarce able to keep up their weighty bodies from dragging on the earth and leaving the track of their long tail on the mud as if that of the keel of a small vessel.

Thus they emerge from the water and go about the shores and the woods, or the fields, in search of
food, or of a different place of abode, or one of safety to deposit their eggs. If, at such times, when at all distant from the water, an enemy is perceived by them, they droop and lie flat with their nose on the ground, watching the intruder’s
movements with their eyes, which are able to move considerably round without affecting the position of the head. Should a man then approach them, they do not attempt either to make away or attack but merely raise their body from the ground for an instant, swelling themselves and issuing a dull blowing sound not unlike that of a blacksmith’s bellows. Not the least danger need be apprehended; then you either kill them with ease or leave them. But to give you a better idea of the slowness of their movements and progress of travels on land, when arrived at a large size, say 12 to 15 feet, believe me when I tell you that, having found one in the morning 50 yards from a lake going to another in sight, I have left him unmolested, hunted through the surrounding swamp all day and met the same alligator within 500 yards of the spot when returning to my camp at dusk. On this account they usually travel during the night, they being then less likely to be disturbed and having a better chance to surprise a litter of pigs or of land tortoises for prey.

The power of the alligator is in his great strength; and the chief means of his attack or defense is his large tail, so well contrived by
nature to supply his wants or guard him from danger that it reaches, when curved into half a circle, his enormous mouth. Woe be to him who goes within the reach of this tremendous thrashing instrument, for no matter how strong or muscular, if human, he must suffer greatly if he escapes with his life. The monster, as he strikes with this, forces all objects within the circle towards his jaws which, as the tail makes a motion, are open to their full stretch, thrown a little sidewise to receive the object and, like battering rams, to bruise it shockingly in a moment.

The alligator, when after prey in the water or at its edge, swims so slowly towards it as not to ruffle the water. It approaches the object sidewise, body and head all concealed, till sure of his stroke; then, with a tremendous blow, as quick as thought, the object is secured as I described before.

When alligators are fishing, the flapping of their tails about the water may be heard at half a mile; but to describe this in a more graphic way, suffer me to take you along with me in one of my hunting excursions, accompanied by friends and Negroes. In the immediate neighborhood of
Bayou Sarah, on the Mississippi, are extensive shallow lakes and morasses that are yearly overflowed by the dreadful floods of that river and supplied with myriads of fishes of many kinds, amongst which
trouts are most abundant,
white perch,
catfish and alligator gars or
devilfish. Thither in the early part of autumn, when the heat of a southern sun has exhaled much of the water, the squatter, the planter, the hunter all go in search of sport. The lakes are then about 2 feet deep, having a fine sandy bottom; frequently much grass grows in them bearing crops of seeds for which multitudes of waterfowls resort to those places. The edges of these lakes are deep swamps, muddy for some distance, overgrown with heavy large timber, principally cypress, hung with Spanish beard and tangled with different vines, creeping plants and cane, so as to render them almost dark during the day and very difficult to the hunter’s progress. Here and there in the lakes are small islands with clusters of the same trees on which flocks of snakebirds,
wood ducks and different species of
herons build their nests. Fishing lines, guns and rifles, some salt and some water, are all the hunters take. Two Negroes precede them—the woods are crossed—the scampering deer is seen—the raccoon and the
opossum cross before you—the black, the grey and the fox
squirrel are heard barking—here on a tree close at hand is seen an old male [squirrel] pursuing intensely a younger one; he seizes it, they fight desperately, but the older attains his end,
vincit, castratque juniorem
[Victory, the younger one is castrated]. (Now, my dear sirs, if this is not mental power illustrated, what shall we call it?) As you proceed farther on, the
hunk hunk
of the lesser ibis is heard from different parts as they rise from the puddles that supply them with crayfishes. At last the opening of the lake is seen; it has now become necessary to drag oneself along through the deep mud, making the best of the way, with the head bent, through the small brushy growth, caring about naught but the lock of your gun. The long, narrow Indian canoe kept to hunt those lakes, and taken into them during the fresh [i.e., the flood], is soon launched, and the party seated in the bottom is paddled or poled in search of water game. There, at a sight, hundreds of alligators are seen dispersed over all the lake, their head and all the upper part of the body floating like a log, and in many instances so resembling one that it requires to be accustomed to see them to know the distinction. Millions of the large
wood ibis are seen wading through the water, mudding it up and striking deadly blows with their bills on the fish within. Here are a hoard of
blue herons—the
sandhill crane rises with his hoarse note—the snakebirds are perched here and there on the dead timber of the trees—the
cormorants are fishing—
buzzards and
carrion crows exhibit a mourning train, patiently waiting for the water to dry and leave food for them—and far in the horizon the
eagle overtakes a devoted wood duck singled from the clouded flocks that have been bred there. It is then that you see and hear the alligator at his work. Each lake has a spot deeper than the rest, rendered so by those animals who work at it and always situate at the lower end of the lake near the connecting bayous that, as drainers, pass through all those lakes, and discharge sometimes many miles below where the water has made its entrance above, thereby ensuring to themselves water as long as any will remain. This is called by the hunters the Alligator’s Hole. You see them there lying close together. The fish that are already dying by thousands through the insufferable heat and stench of the water and the wounds of the different winged enemies constantly in
pursuit of them, resort to the Alligator’s Hole to receive refreshment, with a hope of finding security also, and follow down the little currents flowing through the connecting sluices; but no! for, as the water recedes in the lake, they are here confined. The alligators thrash them and devour them whenever they feel hungry, while the ibis destroys all that make towards the shore. By looking for a little on this spot, you plainly see the tails of the alligators moving to and fro, splashing, and now and then, when missing a fish, throwing it up in the air. The hunter, anxious to prove the value of his rifle, marks one of the eyes of the largest alligator, and as the hair-trigger is touched, the alligator dies. Should the ball strike one inch astray from the eye, the animal flounces, rolls over and over beating furiously with his tail all about him, frightening all his companions, who sink immediately, whilst the fishes, like blades of burnished metal, leap in all directions out of the water, so terrified are they at this uproar. (This so alarms the remaining alligators that regularly, in the course of the following night, every one large and small removes to another hole, going to it by water, and probably for a week not one will be seen there.) Another and another receives the shot in the eyes, and expires; yet those that do not feel the fatal bullet pay no attention to the death of their companions till the hunter approaches very close, when they hide themselves for a few moments, by sinking backward.

So truly gentle are the alligators at this season that I have waded through such lakes in company of my friend
Augustin Bourgeat, Esq., to whom I owe much information, merely holding a stick in one hand to drive them off, had they attempted to attack me. When first I saw this way of traveling through the lakes, waist-deep, sometimes with hundreds of these animals about me, I acknowledge to you that I felt great uneasiness, and thought it foolhardiness to do so; but my friend, who is a most experienced hunter in that country, removed my fears by leading the way, and after a few days I thought nothing of it. If you go towards the head of the alligator there is no danger, and you may safely strike it with a club, four feet long, until you drive it away, merely watching the operations of the point of the tail that at each blow you give, thrashes to the right and left most furiously.

The drivers of cattle from the Opelousas, and those of mules
from Mexico, on reaching a lagoon or creek, send several of their party into the water armed merely each with a club, for the purpose of driving away the alligators from the cattle; and you may then see men, mules and those monsters all swimming together, the men striking the alligators that would otherwise attack the cattle, of which they are very fond, and those latter hurrying towards the opposite shores to escape those powerful enemies. They will swim swiftly after a dog, or a deer, or a horse before attempting the destruction of a man, of which I have always remarked they were afraid, if the man feared not them.

Although I have told you how easily an alligator may be killed with a single rifle ball, if well aimed, that is to say, if it strike either in the eye or very immediately above it, yet they are quite as difficult if not shot properly; and to give you an idea of this, I shall mention two striking facts.

My good friend Richard Harlan, M.D., of Philadelphia, having intimated a wish to have the heart of one of those animals to study its comparative anatomy, I one afternoon went out about half a mile from the plantation, and seeing an alligator that I thought I could put whole into a hogshead of spirits, I shot it immediately on the skull bone. It tumbled over from the log on which it had been basking into the water, and with the assistance of two Negroes, I had it out in a few minutes, apparently dead. A strong rope was fastened round its neck, and in this condition I had it dragged home across logs, thrown over fences and handled without the least fear. Some young ladies there, anxious to see the inside of its mouth, requested that the mouth should be propped open with a stick put in vertically; this was attempted, but at this instant the first stunning effect of the wound was over and the animal thrashed and snapped its jaws furiously, although it did not advance a foot. The rope being still around the neck, I had it thrown over a strong branch of a tree in the yard, and hauled the poor creature up, swinging free from all about it, and left it twisting itself and scratching with its forefeet to disengage the rope. It remained in this condition until the next morning when, finding it still alive, though very weak, the hogshead of spirits was put under it and the alligator fairly lowered into it with a surge. It twisted about a little, but the cooper secured the cask and it was shipped to Philadelphia, where it arrived in course.