BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 20 5 



All the ( 'nicoiUlida: are oviparous, and the eggs, which are 

 enclosed in a hard calcareous shell, vary in number from twenty 

 to sixty, according to the age of the individual ; considering the 

 bulk of the animal producing them, the eggs are extraordinarily 

 small, not exceeding in size those of a goose. With the 

 majority of species they are simply deposited in shallow troughs 

 scraped in the sand or mud, covered up, and left to be hatched 

 out by the heat of the sun, but at least a fev^r species hasten the 

 process by piling vegetable matter upon the nests, the decom- 

 position of which furnishes more quickly and surely the requisite 

 heat. Although guarded assiduously by the mother, the young 

 on their emergence from the egg have to run the gauntlet of 

 many dangers from mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles, and 

 among the latter none are credited with so discriminating a 

 partiality as the male parent ; in the egg state their situation is 

 every whit as precarious, all sorts of animals seeking them out 

 and devouring them ; indeed the Egyptians deified a species of 

 Ichneumon because of its dexterity in ferreting out and 

 consuming the contents of the nests. 



Crocodiles' eggs are held in high estimation as food by the 

 native population of all the regions in which they are plentiful, 

 and in many countries, notably Siam and Upper Egypt, the 

 reptiles themselves are utilised as an article of food, though 

 according to Sir Samuel Baker's account, the fiavor is " a com- 

 pound of stinking fish, rotten flesh, and concentrated musk," 

 and would hardly therefore meet the requirements of a civilised 

 palate. 



The food of crocodiles consists of fishes, reptiles, birds, &c., 

 of dead bodies carried down the current or backwards and for- 

 wards in a tideway, ar.d ot such mammals as their strength 

 permits them to drag into deep water and drown ; their method 

 is to lie concealed beneath the surface near the watering places 

 of wild or domestic animals, and stealthily approaching to seize 

 the unsuspecting drinker by the muzzle, and by the exertion of 

 their enormous strength drag the victim into water of sufficient 

 depth to enable them to hold it beneath the surface and so in 

 time suffocate it ; and since by means of muscular valves both 

 to the nostrils and the gullet, which can be closed and opened 

 at will, they can remain submerged for some considerable time 

 without inconvenience to themselves, they are enabled to keep 

 the head of the victim beneath the water for such a time as 

 generally suffices to suffocate it, v/hile, if on their part the neces- 



