CROCODILES & ALLIGATORS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2257, 17 September 1914, Page 7

CROCODILES & ALLIGATORS

WHICH ARE WHICH? How many people know the difference between a crocodile and an alligator p Among the few aTe those who have sojourned for any time in the Northern Territory of Australia, where these strange sanrians do most breed and haunt. Mr. Frank Hurley, the official photographer of the coming Shackleton Expedition, who has just from the Northern Territory, states the difference .with a knowledge born of personal intimacy with both of these animal horiors. The alligator, lie says, the fiercest of all the saurian family, is compared to the crocodile as the wolf is to tho lamb. Ho grows to a length of between IS and 20 feet at maturity, olid is chiefly distinguishable by his short snout. The crocodile seldom attains more than 14 feet in length, and included in that measurement is a long and tapering snout. When desirous of adding to her family the alligator builds a nest, which consists actually of a mound of earth mixed with dry grass and othor. vegetable matter, and thereon lays her eggs, leaving them there to bo hatched by the heat generated by decaying vegetable matter. On the other hand Madame Crocodile selects an opon spot, scrapes a hole in tho sand and there lays her eggs, which are in due course incubated, by tho heat of the sun. 111 one crocodilo's nest Mr. Hurley discovered 110 fewer than G8 eggs.