THE CROCODILIANS 71 



creature runs for the sheltering, muddy current. From 

 the agility displayed by even the most gigantic individ- 

 uals, man must consider himself fortunate that this 

 mammoth reptile is seldom or never hostile to him. Its 

 prey consists largely of fish. 



As is the case with a number of Indian reptiles, it is 

 difficult to procure the Gavial for observation in a cap- 

 tive state. A maze of fascination surrounds the reptile 

 life of delightfully mysterious India; the weird and 

 varied forms, the flashing, or, to the extreme, sinister 

 colors; the colossal proportions of wide-awake brutes 

 more dangerous than the royal tiger, down to pigmy 

 forms, totally blind, burrowing deep into the ground — 

 looking at them collectively they appear to form a rep- 

 tile world by themselves beyond the comprehension of a 

 single human lifetime devoted to them. 



Mr. Lorenze Hagenbeck informs the writer that a 

 friend shot a Gavial thirty feet long. The gigantic 

 carcass was fully three feet in diameter. As it bloated 

 under a tropical sun it appeared like a stranded whale. 

 Carl Hagenbeck has furnished most of the few Gavials 

 exhibited in zoological institutions. Capture depends 

 largely upon strategy. It is comparatively easy to 

 catch an animal that has foolishly taken up its abode in 

 a shallow, inland basin. After it is noosed it is dragged 

 into a crate where it must subsist for some weeks without 

 water other than an occasional dash thrown from a pail 

 — and without food, as an infuriated reptile is in no 

 mood to take nourishment; moreover, it generally fasts 

 for some months after being placed in a commodious 

 tank. 



There is nothing striking about the general structure 

 of the Gavial's body — it is the head which concentrates 

 immediate attention. From in front of the eyes the 



