406 ZOOLOGY 



the northern and southern types of the bird. The feathers of the Uganda, 

 ostrich are of good quality. The ilhistration here given is taken from 

 life. It represents a fine young male ostrich from Karamojo, a country in 

 the north-east of the Uganda Protectorate. An attempt is about to be 

 made in the eastern part of the Uganda Protectorate to start ostrich farms. 



Amongst reptiles, the common African crocodile is naturally the most 

 prominent. These creatures as they lie on the rocks and sand appear to 

 be of enormous size and length, but actual measurements are apt to show 

 that these estimates l)y the eye are untrustworthy. The biggest crocodile 

 we ever shot scarcely exceeded twelve feet in length, though it looked a 

 monster, and I believe fifteen feet is the greatest recorded length of any 

 measured crocodile that has been killed in the Uganda Protectorate. Their 

 attacks on the people, as on the beasts that come to the water's edge^ 

 are as serious as elsewhere in Africa. The <?arrying away of a man or 

 woman by a crocodile was at one time a daily occnrrence at^I^ntebbe. Of 

 late attempts have l)een made to put in practice an excellent idea which 

 originated in some other Protectorate — that of offering small rewards to 

 the natives for crocodiles" eggs, which are then caicfully destroyed. A 

 continual war is waged by Kuropeans desirous of a good kind of rifle 

 practice on the crocodiles frequenting the vicinity of their settlements, 

 and by constant ])ersecution this nuisance may in time be abated. We all 

 know that the attacks of man have completely driven the crocodile away 

 from the Nile lielow Khartum, though at one time within the historic 

 period this creature was found down to the shores of the INIediterranean 

 and in the lakes which now form part of the Suez Canal. 



The crocodiles of the Victoria Nyanza, and, indeed, of any other African 

 lake or river, are fond of crawling out of the water during the daytime 

 to bask in the sun and digest their food in this pleasant warmth. They 

 like to hoist the head and fore-limbs above the rest of the body, and 

 frequently assume an attitude exactlv like that depicted in my coloured 

 illustration. The crocodile has probably no more real humour in him 

 than a sea anemone, and yet to our eyes nature has mingled with his 

 ferociou'^ aspect a hypocritical leer which suggests false sentiment and 

 "crocodiles' tears." The peculiar scoop of the under jaw at its junction 

 with the upper jaw, the grinning teeth, and the placidly closed eyelids 

 suggest the foolish smile which might pass over the face of a sleeping 

 drunkard, as though this creature in its reptilian slumber was dreaming 

 of some unusuall}' toothsome human whose tender body it has recently 

 champed with gusto. I have sometimes seen through a field-glass the 

 most ridiculous and incongruous spectacle of sleeping crocodiles, each 



