CROCODILES, ALLIGATORS, ETC. 49 



During the dry season, when the watercourses dry up. 

 Muggers are occasionally encountered in the jungles, in 

 search of water, although during the very dry weather 

 they generally bury themselves in the mud, and there 

 estivate until the recurrence of rain. They are of cowardly 

 and timid disposition, and very few cases of their having 

 attacked man are on record. 



The Marine Crocodile, C. porosus, of the east coast of 

 India, Ceylon, Burma, and Southern China to North 

 Australia, enters salt water, and frequently occurs many 

 miles out at sea, being seldom, in fact, found above the 

 tideway of rivers. It is to be distinguished from the 

 preceding species, with which it is frequently confounded, 

 by a longer snout, and by the presence of a longitudinal 

 ridge in front of each eye. The largest member of the 

 order, attaining the tremendous length of thirty-three 

 feet, is very bold and vicious, and will attack even 

 when not pressed by hunger. 



The Australian Crocodile, C. johnstonii, and the 

 West African Crocodile, C. cata-phr actus ^ are character- 

 ized by a slender snout, which is about three times as long 

 as broad at the base, and thus approaches somewhat the 

 condition exhibited by the Gharials. 



The voice of the majority of Crocodiles resembles that 

 of the Chinese Alligator, taking the form of a sharp and 

 frequently repeated bark. 



In the genera Gavialis and Tomistoma, which are repre- 

 sented each by a single species, the snout is extremely long 

 and slender, like a cylindrical rod, swollen at the end, and 

 provided with numerous sharp interlocking teeth, well 

 adapted for catching fish. 



