AFRICAN REPTILES 183 



as if suspicious, but finally it gained confidence 

 and came boldly forward. 



Crawling to the crocodile's nest, it picked up 

 an egg in its mouth and retreated to a clump 

 of bushes. I watched it take several eggs, and 

 each time it returned to the bushes, crushed 

 the egg between its jaws, then dropped it, and 

 lapped up the contents with its long forked 

 tongue. 



Finally I frightened it away, and, taking some 

 of the eggs from the nest, I arranged them in an 

 open spot near by, set up my camera, and to 

 the shutter attached a long string which ran to 

 a tree where I hid. In this manner I succeeded 

 in securing two excellent photographs of the 

 monitor with eggs in its mouth, probably the 

 only ones of the kind ever secured, although it 

 had been generally believed for years that moni- 

 tors ate crocodile's eggs. 



This creature must be one of the crocodile's 

 worst enemies, for I found several nests that had 

 been robbed in this way, and Kermit Roosevelt 

 also discovered a monitor robbing a croc's nest 

 while the owner lay asleep only a few yards off. 



