BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 207 



a few species, however, frequent the estuaries of large rivers, 

 and have even been found in the open sea many miles from land. 



In all the members of the family the skull is exceptionally 

 solid, and the roof of the mouth exceeds in completeness even 

 that of all mammals except the anteaters and cetaceans (whales, 

 dolphins, &c.), being composed of the suturally united maxillary, 

 palatine, and pterygoid bones. 



Touching the limital range of the emydosaurians towards 

 either pole and their capacity of enduring cold it may be 

 mentioned that the North American alligator (A. viississipieiisls) 

 is resident as far north as North Carolina, while the most 

 southerly latitudes to which they extend are found to be — in 

 Africa to the southern portion of the Cape Colony, where 

 Crocodilus idloticus occurs, and in South America to the Rio de 

 la Plata, in which both Caiman latirostrif< and C. sclerops are 

 resident; C. niijer and C. tnijoyiatus both ascend the Rio 

 Amazons to its head waters in Eastern Peru, and the East 

 Indian marsh crocodile (of which mention has been previously 

 made) follows up the course of the rivers which have their 

 source in the Himalayas to such an altitude that ice forms upon 

 the streams. 



Only two *species of crocodile have been recorded with 

 certainty from Australia, both of which belong to the QueHUsland 

 fauna ; these may be briefly diagnosed as follows : — 



Long-snouted crocodile ; pond crocodile ; fresh-water croco- 

 dile {Crocoililus johnstonii, Ki-efft). Snout about three times as 

 long as broad at its base ; postoccipital scutes well developed ; 

 nuchal scutes subcontinuous with the dorsal. 



Short-snouted crocodile ; estuary crocodile ; coast crocodile 

 (Crocodilus purosu.i, Schneider). Snout from one and a third to 

 two and a fourth times as long as broad at the base ; postoccipital 

 scutes usually absent; nuchal scutes distinctly separated from 

 the dorsal. 



The first of these species has so far been recorded only from 

 Central Queensland, where it is partial to the still waters of 

 ponds, billabongs, and lagunes ; it attains a length of at least 

 seven feet. Little or nothing is positively known of its habits, 

 but it is reported to be quite harmless, and judging from the 



*The example obtained by Capt. Stokes on the Victoria River and 

 recorded by Grey (Stokes, Discoveries in Australia, i, p. 503) as Crocidilus 

 palustris was C. porosiis. The skull is still in the South Kensington 

 Museum. 



