SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 203 
In Cuba it is still widely distributed but, of course, gradually becoming 
rarer. It occurs in ponds in the mangrove swamps, in estuaries and about 
river mouths always associated with salt or brackish water. Many were ob- 
served in the Estero de Juan Hernandez west of Palo Alto on the south coast 
of the Province of Camaguey, in 1915; but none were seen or heard in 1917 
about the shores of the Ensenada de Cochinos (Barbour). Here C. rhombifer 
comes to salt water and the local belief is without doubt true that the two 
species are never found in the same localities. This crocodile was formerly 
common about the mouth of the Guantanamo River and the smaller streams 
which enter that bay, but like so many of the larger water birds they are, since 
the establishment of the Naval Station, very rare as they afford a too tempting 
a target to the more or less irresponsible “sportsmen.” 
68. CROCODYLUS RHOMBIFER Cuvier. 
Plate 12, fig. 2. 
Cocodrilo. 
Diagnosis: — A crocodile having six or eight large nuchal scales, and with 
a more or less marked obtuse ridge in front of each eye. Colour very dark olive 
everywhere flecked and vermiculated with yellow. These spots most abundant 
upon the sides and limbs. 
Description: — While this crocodile is peculiar to Cuba and the Island of 
Pines and now rare and restricted in its distribution the diagnosis given above 
will serve to separate it at once from its only congener in Cuba. For this 
reason and since it cannot be confounded with any other creature a detailed 
description is quite uncalled for. 
Curiously enough there has existed in the literature on these two animals 
a persistent error regarding their lay names. Thus Humboldt began by call- 
ing rhombifer the ““Caiman.’”’ His error was repeated, so Gundlach tells us, 
by Pichardo in the first editions of his “Diccionario de Voces Cubanas” and the 
same mistake was later made by Cocteau in Ramon de la Sagra’s History. 
Gundlach corrected this error in his Erpetologia Cubana, in 1880, and pub- 
lished as well a long and really absorbing account of his observations upon the 
two Cuban crocodiles during his many years of opportunity to know them. 
During the last few years the senior author has made three visits to the Cienaga 
de Zapata and a few of his notes on the present status of C. rhombifer conclude 
the remarks upon the species. 
