CROCODILES 181 



antiquated reptiles take alarm as soon as the canoe drew 

 near, and plunge headlong into the water ; they were 

 always off before one got near enough to take a photo- 

 graph. 



It seems strange that such a huge and well defended 

 creature should be so nervous. On the only occasion 

 when I have got within camera range, of course I had 

 no camera with me. On the northern coast of Ngamba 

 I was pushing my way through rocks and dense bushes 

 Avhen I suddenly heard, apparently right in front of my 

 feet, a horrid noise, half hiss, half snarl. Hastily stumbling 

 back, I saw I had nearly stepped on the head of a large 

 crocodile lying on the ground. I remained still and 

 watched, noting Tse-tse fly feeding on him, and wondered 

 why he did not, as usual, rush headlong into the water. 

 Before going away I threw a lump of rock on to his back, 

 but that did not move him ; he merely hollowed his back, 

 raising head and tail in the air, and with mouth wide 

 agape gave a sort of bellow. Possibly he was sick or 

 was exhausted from fighting, for there was an ulcerated 

 wound at the base of his tail. On the same island at 

 a later date I saw another large crocodile with a similar 

 wound, but on the opposite side, and wondered if this 

 had been the partner of the duel. 



Crocodiles deposit their eggs in a hole scooped in a 

 dry sandy beach ; these are afterwards carefully covered 

 over to a depth of about a foot, and one often sees the 

 imprint of the body of the mother on the soft sand, even 

 the pattern of the scales on the belly being clearly shown, 

 so that it appears that the parent returns to visit the 

 nest, though she does not seem to be very successful 

 in protecting the eggs, as will be seen later. 



During 1914 numbers of nests were found, of which 

 a list is given below : the number of eggs varies little, 

 averaging sixty in one nest. No evidence was obtained 

 that more than one crocodile lays eggs in one nest. 



