with their
mouth open and waiting until something mistakes the locality and crawls
into it by inadvertance.

But there is one little beast in this interesting family so young and
inexperienced as to be only about nine inches long, including all there
is belonging to him, largely tail. He is of a dark-green color, with a
mottled-yellow belly, and a mouth, when he opens it, very red indeed. He
has no teeth large enough to be very frightful at a distance, and
evidently depends upon the mere opening of this fiendish mouth to scare
away all disturbers of the profound peace which broods perpetually over
him and all his family.

This small one had got away, and in a modified and unsatisfactory search
for his native bayou had crept through the meshes of the wire and into
the other apartment where the eagles were. He was down in the little
rill of running water, and partially hidden under a stone. An eagle had
espied him there, and was watching him, while I watched the eagle.
Presently the natural instincts of the bird of Jove became too strong
for successful repression even in the presence of distinguished company,
and he left his perch in the usual ungraceful way, and after alighting
on the ground waddled to where the little reptile was having a
comfortable time in his exile. He hesitated about the water, but finally
waded in and scratched the monster out from under his sheltering rock.
He then caught him round the middle with one gigantic claw which met
entirely around his prey, and scrambled ashore. By this time the saurian
was fairly awake, and began to provide for his immediate future by
opening his mouth. The eagle, looking between his legs, saw this and
dropped him as an uncanny thing, and afterwards spent some ridiculous
minutes dancing around his foe and warily dodging his satanic
manifestations of open mouth. The whole performance was such on the part
of the eagle as would have disgraced in the eyes of her waiting family,
an ordinary hen, and the end was that the alligator got safely back to
his puddle and his rock. He did it deliberately, and backwards, with his
mouth open about one-third of his entire length. The bird was of average
size. He had the white feathers on his head which made him the "bald" or
"American" eagle. Here was the emblem of this great republic vanquished
by a sleepy little lizard less than a foot long. It was almost as
disgraceful a performance as the Mexican War of '46.

I was once part pro