328 COMMON REPTILES OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



of the latter afforded decisive evidence that the 

 clearance had not been complete. 



Crocodiles are more intelligent than would be 

 supposed by those whose acquaintance with them 

 has been limited to the sight of specimens as they 

 lie about on a sand-bank with their eyes glaring in 

 a fixed, stony stare, or float about like logs on the 

 surface of the water. Those who were kept in the 

 reptile-house at Alipur showed that they fully 

 realised when they ought to be fed, and recognised 

 the keeper who was about to supply the food. At 

 all other times they were passively sluggish, but on 

 feeding-nights they greeted the arrival of the 

 keeper by scrambling out of their ponds and 

 roaring loudly until they were attended to. I once 

 tried one as a pet, but soon tired of its hopeless 

 untamableness and savage temper, and when, some 

 years later, some fishermen presented me with a 

 specimen about five feet in length, I took it at once 

 to the Zoological Garden. Whilst living with the 

 superintendent of the Botanic Garden, I had to 

 cross the river by boat in going to and returning from 

 work in Calcutta, and in doing so naturally became 

 very friendly with many of the boatmen who fre- 

 quented the landing-ghdt on the far side of the 

 stream. Knowing that I had a liking for miscellane- 

 ous curios, they usually reserved any strange animal 

 that they got hold of until I had had the offer of 

 it. One morning I found that a set of them had 



