208 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



pursued keep zigzaging and making sharp turns, as it is supposed that the reptile cannot turn 

 C|uickly. This, however, is a mistake as with but a single movement it can turn in a semi- 

 circle with its head pointing in the direction where the tail was, and vice versa. What is 

 true is, that they cannot leach up very high, nor can the head be twisted unless the whole 

 body be turned at the same time. The pen in which I kept my specimens was surrounded 

 by a four foot wall, which the larger six and eight foot specimens could not scale. I have 

 said that they could not twst the head by itself, but they can twist head and body very 

 rapidly. When I touch one of them on the side with a stick, instead of his moving away, he 

 will turn in the direction of the stick. 



" In swimming, the tail is used with a sculling movement and not the legs. In catching 

 their prey they will mark the place, submerge, swim in that direction, and rise at the precise 

 spot. The hunters knowing this will step to one side and as the animal appears, deal a blow 

 with the machete or else use the ruse with their hat as I have explained above." 



At the present time rhombifer is still abundant in the Zapata swamp, 

 although large individuals are very seldom seen. Of six or seven individuals 

 shot none was over seven feet long (Barbour). A mutilated skin, however, 

 in 1913 in the possession of Dr. Campos at the town of Aguada de Pasajeros 

 measured nearly twelve feet in length. Individuals far larger are still reported 

 from the inaccessible interior of the swamp. WTiile riding on horseback or 

 wading through the "tembladera," or ooze, crocodiles are often encountered. 

 The inner marshes of the Cienaga in general consist of an enormous deposit 

 of silt, partially held in suspension in water and resting on a firm limestone 

 substratum. In some locaUties one meets with muddy lakes or the clogged- 

 up course of some sluggish stream hke the lower Rio Hanabana but generally 

 the ooze is sufficiently compacted to support a sort of half floating vegetation 

 of rushes and reeds and in certain areas the great curled-up lily pads which in 

 the Florida Everglades are called "bonnets" are found abundantly. It is 

 among these only that one meets the little yellow rail (Porzana flaviventris) 

 and here generally the crocodiles as well. Lying almost submerged and quite 

 hidden among the "bonnets" they remain motionless until one approaches. 

 Then they sink down and stay quiet or move slowly away through the layer or 

 zone of comparatively hquid mud below the matted roots of the superficial 

 plants. For this reason it is by no means uncommon for the collector or his 

 horse to touch a crocodile so hidden and one that had sunk so quietly that his 

 presence was quite unsuspected. When touched the creature with a sudden 

 squirm thrusts his head clear of the surface apparently to see what has hap- 

 pened and then at a range of but a couple of feet the beast may be killed with 

 almost any sort of fire arms. The senior author met several crocodiles in this 

 way and killed them with a twenty gauge shot gun and bird shot. 



It is worth mentioning that Boulenger and others have always spoken of 



