CROCODILES. 143 



Crocodiles are oviparous, and their eggs are provided with 

 resistant shells. These eggs are deposited by the female in 

 some secluded place in the sand on the banks of the river, and 

 are hatched simply by the ambient heat, without any assistance 

 from the mother. The female Crocodiles of the Nile deposit their 

 eggs where the solar heat soon brings them to maturity. In 

 certain countries, such as the neighbourhood of Cayenne and 

 Surinam, the eggs are buried imder a kind of mound which the 

 Aligators raise in damp places by gathering together leaves and 

 herbaceous stems. This vegetable debris undergoes a kind of fer- 

 mentation, the result of which is an increase of temperature, which, 

 joined to that of the atmosphere, produces the desired residt. 



Lacepede describes an egg in the Museum of Natural History 

 in Paris, which was laid by a Crocodile fourteen feet in length, 

 which was killed in Upper Egypt. This egg is only two inches 

 and five lines in its greatest diameter ; in its least diameter 

 it is one inch and eleven lines. It is oval and whitish. Its 

 shell is cretaceous in substance, like the eggs of birds, but 

 not so hard. At the time of their birth the little Crocodiles 

 are only about six inches in length, but their growth is very 

 rapid. They abound in large rivers in the tropics, and in 

 marshy places near their banks. They often come on shore, for 

 they are amphibious. In the night they watch for their prey. 

 They feed exclusively on flesh — that is to say on fish, small 

 Mammalians, aquatic birds, and reptiles. When they have seized 

 a large object they drag it under the water, where it soon 

 dies by asphyxia ; there they leave it to macerate, when they eat 

 it by instalments. In this manner men are sometimes carried 

 away by Crocodiles, but it is contrary to the habits of the animal to 

 suppose that they are devoured immediately. "When a Crocodile 

 has succeeded in seizing a negro, it does not devour him till 

 the body becomes decomposed, when it can tear it to pieces with 

 greater facility. 



From the general structure of their bony framework it is diffi- 

 cult for Crocodiles to turn round or move otherwise than for- 

 ward. This circvimstance renders it easy to escape their pursuit. 

 When chased by a Crocodile, it can be avoided by describing a 

 circle, or running in a succession of curves. Upon the banks 



