ALLIGATOR

(A corruption of the Portuguese word ' lagarto,' which is derived from lacerta, a lizard.) In modern Zoology, the term is limited to those species of crocodile which have a wide obtuse muzzle, unequal teeth, the fourth pair of which, counting backwards in the lower jaw, pa into corresponding cavities in the upper jaw, where their points are concealed when the mouth is closed. In the true crocodiles, the corresponding teeth pa into open grooves in the margin of the upper jaw, and are consequently exposed. In the alligators the head is le oblong, its length being generally as to its breadth as 3 to 2: the teeth are more numerous than in the crocodiles, sometimes amounting to twenty two in the lower jaw, and to twenty in the upper. The hind legs and feet are rounded, and have neither crests nor dentations; the interspaces of the toes are only occupied for half their extent by a short membrane. The alligators, iso far as is yet known, are peculiar to the New World. [s. 46]