_Size and Growth._ Although, years ago, alligators of fifteen feet length may have been common in favorable localities in the South, it is probable that few if any such monsters now exist. A twelve-foot alligator, owing to its great girth, is a huge animal and but few of this size are to be found in captivity. The largest specimen the writer has ever seen is the one in the Bronx Zoo, which is barely thirteen feet in length. At hatching the alligator is about eight inches in length. Clarke (17) says: “The largest specimen I saw measured twelve feet in length; and none of the many hunters and natives of Florida I have met have seen any longer than thirteen feet. All the hunters agree that it is only the males that acquire the great size; no one had ever seen a female that measured over eight feet, and the majority are not over seven. The male has a heavier, more powerful head, and during the breeding season especially is more brilliantly colored.” It is a very common belief, even among those who should be most familiar with their habits, that the growth of the alligator is remarkably slow, so that a large specimen may be described by the exhibitor as more than a century old. The same dealer in alligators quoted above says upon this subject: “You can figure about two inches a year to their growth.” He also says: “We judge that an alligator about twenty-five to thirty years old will breed.” Even scientific writers of reputation have not been free from this error in their writings. That the alligator may live to an extreme age, as seems to be true of some of the tortoises, is quite possible, and it is probable that after reaching a length of twelve or fifteen feet the growth is very slow. In captivity, when kept in warm water and other favorable conditions, the alligator will grow, according to measurements taken at the New York Zoölogical Park, at the rate of about one foot a year, for about the first ten years. Under unfavorable conditions the growth may be exceedingly slow. Under favorable conditions in nature the rate of growth may exceed that given above. Instead of requiring twenty-five to thirty years to reach sexual maturity, as quoted above, it is likely that the female may lay eggs at five to ten years, though such a fact is difficult to determine of animals in their native haunts. _Voice._ The alligator, unlike most other members of its class, the _Ophidia_, _Chelonia_, and _Lacertilia_, has a voice, which, in an adult bull, may be heard for a mile or more. This bellowing is difficult to describe; it is something between a moan and a roar, and may be to attract the opposite sex or to serve as a challenge to other large animals. It is usually ascribed to the male, but whether confined to him or not the writer is unable to say. In younger animals the voice is, of course, less deep and in very young individuals it is a squeak or grunt, easily imitated by hunters for the purpose of luring the animals from their hiding places.