Professor of Zoölogy in West Virginia University
Author of “An Introduction to Vertebrate Embryology”
With 62 Figures and 28 Plates
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1915
Copyright, 1915
BY
ALBERT M. REESE
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
PREFACE
The purpose of this volume is to bring together, in convenient form for the use of students of zoölogy, some of the more important details of the biology, anatomy, and development of the Crocodilia. For obvious reasons the American Alligator is the species chiefly used.
In the first chapter the discussion of the alligator is largely the result of the personal observations of the author; the facts in regard to the less familiar forms are taken from Ditmars and others. The description of the skeleton, with the exception of short quotations from Reynolds, is the author’s.
The chapter on the muscular system is a translation from Bronn’s Thierreich, and the author has not verified the descriptions of that writer.
The description of the nervous system is partly the author’s and partly taken from Bronn and others.
The chapters on the digestive, urogenital, respiratory, and vascular systems are practically all from descriptions by the author.