Alligators

Family of Procælia, including American forms, characterized by by a broad snout and twenty teeth in the lower jaw (twenty-two in the Caiman of the Orinoco), fitting IMG:content-0094.png:[graphic][subsumed][merged small] into pits in the upper jaw when the mouth is shut. (The canines fit into notches.) Those in the Southern States are being exterminated. They are fond of fish, dogs, and pigs. They have a collar at the base of the tongue, which enables them to keep water from entering the windpipe while holding their prey under water to drown it. They bellow with the roar of thunder, use their tails as weapons when attacked, but are not aggre ive when unmolested, while out of the water. The plates on their back are separated from those on the head, as in the crocodiles proper, which have narrower snouts; the webs of the hind toes are rudimentary. See Crocodilia and PROCELIA.