16 REPTILIA. 



Croc, biporcatus, Cuv. ; Le Crocodile a deux aretes, Ann. Mus. 

 X, 1, 4 and 11, 8, and Oss. foss. 2d part, same plates and fig., 

 has eight rows of oval plates along the back, and two projecting 

 crests on the upper part of the muzzle. It is found in several 

 islands of the Indian Ocean, and most probably exists in the 

 two peninsulas. 



Croc, acutus, Cuv.; Crocodile a museau effile, Geoff. Ann. Mus. 

 II, xxxvii, has a longer muzzle, arched at base; the dorsal 

 plates arranged in four lines; the external ones disposed irre- 

 gularly, and with more salient ridges. From St Domingo and 

 the other great Antiles. The female places her eggs under 

 ground, and uncovers them at the moment they are about to be 

 hatched.(l) 



Alligator, Cuv.(2) 

 Alligators have a broad obtuse muzzle and unequal teeth, the 



that I dare not elevate the Crocodiles sent from Bengal by M. Duvaucel to the 

 rank of species, although they have a more convex head than any of the others. 



There is another point in which I am compelled to differ from the learned natu- 

 ralist I have just named. He supposes that the variety or species with the nar- 

 row muzzle remains smaller, is gentle and inoffensive, and that the smallness of 

 its size causes it to be soonest thrown upon the shores by inundations, of which it 

 is thus the precursor, and, from these ideas, is of opinion that it was the object of 

 the religious honours of the Egyptians, and that Suchus, or Suchis, was its specific 

 appellation. On the contrary, I think I have proved, both by Aristotle and Cicero, 

 that the Crocodiles venerated by the Egyptians were not less ferocious than the 

 others; it is also very certain, that the species with the narrow muzzle was not the 

 exclusive object of priestly care, for, from the very exact researches of M. Geoff- 

 roy himself, it appears that the three embalmed Crocodiles now in Paris are not 

 the Suchus, but tlie complcmatus, the marginatus, and the lacunosus; in fine, I am 

 forced to believe that Souc, or Souchis, which, according to M. Champollion, was 

 the Egyptian name of Saturn, was also the specific name of the Crocodile fed at 

 Arsinoe, just as Apis was the naijne of the sacred bull at Memphis, and Mnevis tliat 

 of the bull of Hermopolis. With respect to this point of ancient history, see the 

 various writings of M. Geoffroy, and particularly in the great work on Egypt, as 

 well as my Oss. foss. tom. V, part 2, p. 45. This last article having been written 

 previous to that of the great work on Egypt, I could not profit by the argument 

 drawn from the difference of the embalmed Crocodiles, an argument furnished me 

 by M. Geoffroy, and one which seems to me strongly to corroborate my view of 

 the matter. 



(1) The Croc, acutus has been particularly observed by M. Descourtils. Add 

 the Croc, rhombjfer, Cuv. Ann. Mus. XII, pi. 1, 1; the Croc, d casque {C. gakatus). 

 Perrault, M6m. pour servir a I'Hist. des An. pi. Ixiv, if it should prove (being 

 only known by this figure) a constant species; the Croc.bisgutatus, Cuv. Ann. 

 Mus. X, 11, 6, and Oss. foss., t. V, part 2, pi. 11, f. 6, of which only one or two 

 specimens have ever been seen; the Croc, cataphractus, Cuv. Oss. foss. V, part 

 1, pi. V, f. 1 and 2. 



(2) Or Caiman, the name given to Crocodiles by the negroes of Guinea. The 



