362 Dr. Falconer on two/crania of Crocodiles. 



On the other hand, Mr. Gray gives three species to the Ganges, 

 viz. C. biporcatus, C. palustris and C. bombifrons. It is of interest 

 therefore to record the existence of any specimens bearing upon 

 the disputed or ill-determined species : and having observed the 

 crania of two rare Crocodiles in the museum at Belfast, the fol- 

 lowing n$tes regarding them have been drawn up at the request 

 of Mr. Wi Thompson. 



Crocodilus cataphractus, Cuv. Oss. Fossiles, torn. v. p. 58. pi. 5. 

 figs. 1 & 2 ; Dum. and Bibron, Erpet. torn. hi. p. 126. C. lep- 

 torhynchus, Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, p. 129. Mecistops 

 Bennettii and M. cataphractus, Gray, Catalog, pp. 57 & 58. 



This species was founded by Cuvier upon an imperfect speci- 

 men of unknown origin in the museum of the London College of 

 Surgeons. It was briefly described by Bennett, first as a distinct 

 species from Fernando Po in 1835, and afterwards as a variety of 

 C. cataphractus in the 'Zoological Proceedings' of 1836. Mr. 

 Gray has erected it into a separate genus under the name of Me- 

 cistops, in which he includes along with it the C. Journei of Bory 

 de Saint-Vincent, and C. (Gavialis) Schlegelii of fuller. So far 

 as is known to us no representations have yet been given of the 

 cranium divested of its integuments. Plate VI. figs. 1, 2 and 3 

 represent the Belfast specimen, viewed from the top, side and base 

 of the skull. It is evidently identical with Gray's Mecistops Ben- 

 nettii ; the head of the stuffed specimen of this nominal species 

 in the British Museum collection agreeing with it exactly in form, 

 and very nearly in size. The muzzle is more attenuated and nar- 

 rower than in C. acutus, but less so than in C. Schlegelii, which 

 constitutes the passage from the true Crocodiles into the Garials. 

 The cranial tablet is not so wide as in the Garial, C. Schlegelii, and 

 the crotaphite foramina are proportionally smaller. The muzzle 

 does not contract abruptly in front of the orbits, but is gradually 

 attenuated from the back part of the cranium forwards. The 

 extreme width at the condyles of the lower jaw is 7 inches, be- 

 hind the orbits 4f inches, and in a line with their anterior bor- 

 der 84 inches. At the seventeenth or last tooth of the upper jaw 

 the width is 3|- inches, and 1-| between the eleventh and twelfth 

 teeth : there is an expansion to 2 inches opposite the ninth tooth, 

 which is the largest in the head: thence the beak contracts 

 gradually to the space between the fourth and fift^ teeth, where 

 the width is only 1 inch ; at the extremity of the muzzle, between 

 the second and third teeth, it expands to If inch. The margins, 

 when viewed in plan, are therefore more undulated and less 

 cylindrical than in the Garial or C. Schlegelii, and there is less 

 dilatation of the point of the beak. 



The orbits are much larger than the crotaphite foramina, which 



