EXISTING CROCODILES 2371 



ment, by their weight and with a stroke of the tail, below the water and drown it. 

 Their gullet, is, however, much too narrow to allow of the passage of the entire 

 body of the victim; and their teeth being adapted for seizing and holding fast only, 

 and not for biting, they are obliged to mangle the carcass, tearing off single pieces 

 by sudden strong jerks." This rending process is mainly accomplished by lateral 

 movements of the head and front portion pf the body. Too often, human beings, 

 who incautiously bathe in crocodile-haunted waters, fall victims to these blood- 

 thirsty reptiles; while there are instances of people being seized when merely 

 stooping down to dip water from the river's marge. When seized, the only way 

 for an unarmed* man to escape is, it is said, to thrust his fingers into the creature's 

 eyes and endeavor to gouge them out. To a considerable extent crocodiles are 

 nocturnal in their habits, and during protracted droughts many of them at least 

 are accustomed to bury themselves in the mud, where they become torpid. 



As regards their reproduction, crocodiles lay from twenty to sixty eggs, of 

 the approximate size of those of a goose, and invested with a hard, white shell. 

 These are deposited in some hollow in the sand of the bank, where, after being 

 covered to a greater or less depth, they are left to hatch. Whether the parent 

 always assists in the incubation does not appear certain, although this has been 

 proved to be the case in Madagascar by Dr. Voeltzkow. In that island the egg- 

 laying season lasts from the end of August to the end of September; the usual 

 number of eggs in a nest varying from twenty to thirty. The nest is excavated 

 to a depth of about two feet in the dry white sand; its lateral walls being under- 

 mined so as to allow the eggs to roll into the cavities thus formed from the 

 slightly elevated centre. Upon the summit of the completed nest, which is not 

 noticeable externally, the parent sleeps; and when the young crocodiles are ready 

 for hatching they utter distinct notes, which are heard by the mother even 

 through a layer of two feet of sand. Digging down to the eggs, the parent croco- 

 dile lays them open to the air, upon which the young reptiles make their way out 

 by perforating the shell at one extremity by the aid of a tooth specially developed 

 for this purpose, the whole process occupying as much as a couple of hours. When 

 hatched, the young crocodiles are led to the water by their parent, whose attention 

 they attract by uttering cries, which are, however, of a lower pitch than those 

 emitted while still in the egg. 



EXISTING CROCODILES 

 Family CROCODILIDJE 



The whole of the existing members of the order are included in a 

 single family, which may be subdivided into half a dozen generic 

 groups. Of these, in some respects the most specialized are the caimans and 

 alligators, which, although closely allied, are now generally regarded as belonging 

 to distinct genera. Both caimans and alligators are characterized by their 

 relatively-short, and broad snouts, in which the edges of the jaws are festooned, 



