148 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Phili h, II'. P. /Ii- ,,: , f 7 5. 



YOUNG BROAU-SNOUTED CROCODILE 



^ nati've cf West Afnca^ temarkabk fcr the extreme shortness and great breadth of 



and the feet are more or 

 less webbed. The most strik- 

 ing of its structural adapta- 

 tions is, however, associated 

 with the formation of the 

 creature's skull. The manner 

 in which a crocodile or alli- 

 gator contrives to breathe or to 

 save itself from asphyxiation, 

 when opening and shutting 

 its mouth under water, as 

 it ma}- often be observed to 

 do in the Regent's Park 

 Menagerie, is a common 

 source of wonderment to the 

 onlooker. This seemingly 

 difficult feat is compassed by 

 virtue of the posterior nos- 

 trils, or breathing-passages, 

 being set so far back in the 

 skull, and being so completely 

 cut off from the mouth-cavity 

 by specialh- developed bones of the palate, that they have no intercommunication with 

 the mouth. It is this mechanism which enables a crocodile to seize and hold an animal 

 underneath the water between its open jaws until it is drowned. Special \'alves at the 

 back of the mouth prevent any water running down the creature's throat, while it is able 

 itself to breathe unrestrainedly by allowing just the tip of its elongated snout, with the anterior 

 nostril-apertures, to remain above the water's surface. In many species a conspicuous knob- 

 like bony excrescence is developed at the extremity of the snout, by which the nostril-openings 

 are raised turret-wise abo\'e the surface of the water. The eyes also being usually elevated 

 above the level of the 

 creature's head, the crocodik- 

 is able to approach its floatini; 

 or bank-side prey practically 

 unperceived, its -huge body, 

 limbs, and even the head, 

 with the exception of the 

 nose and eyes, being total!)- 

 submerged. 



Although capable of 

 moving with great activity 

 in the water, crocodiles and 

 their allies are usuallv ac- 



counted sluggish and 



slow 



movers on the land. Seen 

 basking in the sun, as is 

 their wont, by the hour 

 together on some sand-bank, 

 or creeping lazily thereon 

 among their fellows, such a 

 conclusion is natural. The 

 celerity, however, with which 



Phala by Sermnn 



A DEAD CROCODILE 



A man-eating ir.di'vsjual. Thii particular animal has just been shot. The naWves iu the 

 background gi've a good tdea of its sfze — httle less than 20 feet long 



