Although so awkward on land, the alligator is said to be able to defend himself very effectively with his tail, which he sweeps from side to side with sufficient force, in the case of a large specimen, to knock a man off his feet. Although the writer has seen captured and helped to capture alive several alligators up to eight feet in length he has never seen this vigorous use of the tail as a weapon of defense. While the alligator, like most other wild animals, will doubtless defend itself when cornered, it will always flee from man if possible, and the writer has frequently waded and swam in ponds and lakes where alligators lived without the least fear of attack. This might not have been possible years ago when the animals were more numerous and had not been intimidated by man and his weapons. _Food._ The food of the adult alligator consists of fishes, birds, mammals, and possibly smaller individuals of its own species. The young eat small fish, frogs, insects, or worms. If the animal be too large to swallow whole it is shaken and torn, the shaking being so vigorous that, according to Ditmars, the entrails of the prey may be thrown to a distance of twenty feet or more. Should two alligators seize the same prey at the same time they whirl about in opposite directions so violently that the prey is torn apart. This action may be illustrated by giving two small captive alligators a piece of tough meat; they hold on with bulldog tenacity, and each, folding its legs close to its body, will use its tail like a propeller until the animal whirls around with remarkable speed. The commotion that two ten-foot alligators would cause when thus struggling can easily be imagined. That a large alligator, if it tried, could easily drag under the water and drown a man or possibly a much larger animal is evident. While the alligator has a valve-like fold of skin in its throat that enables it to open its mouth and crush its prey under water, it is said that it must raise its head above water in order to swallow its food. A young alligator on land will usually throw back its head when trying to swallow a large piece of meat, so that it may be simply this motion that brings the head of the alligator above the surface of the water. Ditmars thus describes the fate of a dog that approached too near a very large alligator: “As a dog, weighing about fifty pounds, unwarily approached the edge of this creature’s tank, it was suddenly grasped and before completing its first yelp of terror was dragged beneath the surface. A few minutes later the twelve-foot saurian appeared at the top, holding the dead canine in its jaws. The dog was shifted about, amid the sound of breaking bones, and swallowed head first, and entire, after a few gulps.”