-9^ Buffaloes and Crocodiles 



of cr(3codiIes in the ri\c_-rs, as the- snouts and nostrils of the 

 animals, which just reach the surface ot the water, are very 

 often nearly invisible. Crocodiles notice everything;- that 

 goes on in their vicinity ; their eyesight is extraordinary. 

 It the rejjtiles happen to be l\'ing on simd-banks or low- 

 lying places bv the bank, thev suddenly disappear into 

 the water at the least sign of danger. 1 have often 

 suri)rised gigantic crocodiles by coming out Irom the 

 covert on the bank. I hen it sometimes seemed as it 

 the ground imder m\" f(-et suddenly became alive, or as it 

 some moss-covered tree-trunk in the water had come to lite. 



Young ones just out of the broken eggs I used to find 

 in March. E\en these showed themselves inclined to bite. 

 Some old animals that I have caught used to emit at times 

 a peculiar deep, indescribable halt-growling sound, ot a 

 savageness hard to descrilje ; a sound which I have now 

 and again heard them make when at liberty, especially 

 at rutting-tinie. The r|uite young crocodiles when caught 

 ofave a loud and liveK' crv. 



A bullet from a small-calibre rille (even a common lead 

 bullet) will kill the reptile on the spot, if it strikes the 

 head in the region of the spine. It seems to set working 

 a kind of conxailsive motion in the whole vascular system 

 of the animal. I have killed a great number ot crocodiles 

 which could n(jt move an inch at^ter having been hit by 

 a ball, and which lay as if struck by lightning. 



My friend Captain Merker once had a \-ery interesting- 

 experience with young crocodiles. He found some 

 crocodile - eggs near the \'olcanic Lake Chala, in 

 December, and took them back with him to Port Moshi, 



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