201 



CROCODILID^E. 



CROCODILIDvE. 



Nuchal and cervical plates, &c., of 

 Crocodilus vtilyaris. 



mounts that part are in general lower, of less consistence, and less stiff 

 than those in the Caimans. Crocodilus rhombifer must however be 

 excepted ; for the caudal crest of 

 that species is very low, and, so to 

 speak, osseous. 



Zoologists seem to be agreed in 

 allowing that there is scarcely any 

 genus of Reptiles the species of 

 which are so difficult to be distin- 

 guished from each other as those 

 of Crocodilus. Crocodilus Bulgaria, 

 the Egyptian Crocodile, may be 

 taken as a type of the genus to 

 which it belongs and of the whole 

 family. It has the following charac- 

 ters : Jaws not elongated into a 

 narrow beak. Hind feet largely 

 palmated, and with a festooned crest 

 along their posterior border. Six 

 cervical plates. Dorsal scutcheons 

 or shields quadrangular, and sur- 

 mounted by six longitudinal rows of 

 corinao but little elevated. 



It is the Crocodilut amphibius 

 'icut, Loch. ; Le Crocodile du 

 Nil, Daud. ; Crocodilut vulgarit, 

 Cuv. ; Crocodilut vulgarit, Tiedm. ; Le Crocodile Vulgaire, Cuv. ; the 

 Common Crocodile, Griff., 'Animal Kingdom;' Lacerta Crocodilus, 

 Linn. ; C. Champses, Bory ; C. lacunosut, Geoff. ; C. complanatus, 

 Geoff. 



Messrs. Dume'ril and Bibron make four varieties of this species. The 

 first variety has the following characters : Muzzle a little narrowed, 

 rather flat than arched across, with small hollows and channeling*, 

 which are now and then worm-shaped, on its surface. Table of the 

 skull entirely flat. Back green, speckled with black ; two or three 

 oblique bands of the last-mentioned colour on each flank. The authors 

 give the following synomyms : 



Crocodilut vulgarit, Geoff., ' Ann. Mus." torn. x. p. 67 ; ' Descript, 

 Egyp.' ('Hist. Nat.') torn. i. p. 8; Atlas, pi 2, fig. 1, 2 : C. rulgaris, 

 ' Merr. Amph.' p. 37, spec. 9 ; C. Champtet, Bory de St. Vincent, 

 ' Diet. Clas.' torn. v. p. 105 ; C. vulgarit, Geoff., ' Crocod. d'Egypte,' 

 p. 159; C. lacunotus, Geoff., 'Croc. d'Egypte,' p. 167; C. vulgarit, 

 Gray, ' Synops. Hept' part i. p. 57, spec. 1. 



This, as well as the following variety, i that to which those indivi- 

 duals whose jaws are the least narrowed belong. The jaws have not 

 indeed the same width in all, but it may be said generally that their 

 width, when measured at the ninth upper tooth, is only one-seventh 

 of the length of the head measured from the end of the nose to the 

 occiput. There are some individuals of this variety whose upper 

 mandible presents a nearly flat surface ; that is to say, the extreme 

 edge of its contour is the only part which declines towards the lower 

 jaw. As an example of this group Messrs. Dumc'ril and Bibron refer 

 to the individual brought from Egypt by M. Geoffroy, and which 

 both Cuvier and himself have taken as the type of Crocodilus 

 vulgarit. 



that historian to the locality of Elephantine alone, nor to any parti- 

 cular species. Geoffroy observes that the Crocodile still bears in 

 Egypt the name of Temsa, which M. Champollion thought he recog- 

 nised upon many papyri, as mshah, a word which he regard d as 

 formed of the preposition ' m,' ' in,' and the substantive ' sah,' egg.' 

 "With regard to the Suchus, M. Champollion, the younger, states that 

 the Egyptians gave the name of Souk to a deity which they repre- 

 sented as a man with a Crocodile's head. We refer those who wish 

 to follow out this part of the subject more especially to the ancient 

 authors above mentioned, to M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, to Cuvier, and to 

 the volume on Egyptian Antiquities in the ' Library of Entertaining 

 Knowledge ;' observing only that the Egyptians ornamented their 

 tame Crocodiles by hanging rings of gold and precious stones in the 

 opercula of their ears, which they pierced for the purpose, adorned 

 their fore feet with bracelets, and presented them in this finery to the 

 veneration of the people. They also fed them well. Cake, roast meat, 

 and mulled wine were occasionally crammed and poured down their 

 throats. Pliny, ^Elian, and others, did little but copy what preceding 

 writers had written upon this subject ; but we learn from the former 

 that the Romans first saw them in the aedileship of Scaurus, who 

 showed five. Augustus introduced thirty-six of them into an amphi- 

 theatre at one time, where they were all killed by gladiators. 



It is said that Crocodilus vulgarit is no longer seen in the Delta, but 

 that it is found, sometimes in great numbers, in the Thebaid and the 

 Upper Nile. 



The characters of the genus Gavialis are given above. 



The upper mandible of the Gavials is never pierced for the intro- 

 mission of the teeth of the lower jaw, as it is in Crocodilus ; but there 

 are four large notches which serve as lodgments for the first and fourth 

 pair of lower teeth. The Gavials are besides distinguished by the 

 narrowness and length presented by the anterior part of their head 

 and jaws, which resemble a sort of straight beak spread out at its 

 origin, subcylindrical for the greatest part of its length, and termi- 

 nating in a slight circular enlargement at its extremity. These jaws 

 are rectilinear, and not undulated as in Alligator and Crocodilus. The 

 number of teeth with which these narrow mandibles are armed is also 

 greater than in either of the last-mentioned genera, amounting ordi- 

 narily in Gavialit to 118 or 120, all of which are equal, with the 

 exception of those which compose the five or six first pairs above as 

 well as below. The post-orbito-cranial holes are oval, and larger than 

 they are in Crocodilut, for their diameter approaches that of the 

 orbite themselves. The external orifice of the nasal fossae, or rather 

 of the long canal, which M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire has termed cranio- 

 respiratory, is triangular. The membrane which closes this orifice has 

 a considerable development in the males, and forms a large oval car- 

 tilaginous mass. This prominence is a kind of sac divided into two 

 portions internally, the aperture of which is backwards and a little 

 below. As in the Crocodiles, the eyelid contains in its substance a 

 rudiment of a bony plate. 



The hind feet of the Gavials are formed for the most part in the 

 same manner as those of the majority of species of Crocodilus ; that is 

 to say, there are long and wide webs between the toes, and the poste- 

 rior part of the leg is furnished with a dentilated crest. The cervical 

 plates of the Gavials form a long band on the neck, as in the Caimans, 

 and in one species only of Crocodile. The scales of the flanks are flat and 



Egyptian Crocodile 



The second variety is the C. paluttrii, Less., ' Voy. Ind. Orient.' ; 

 Bell, ' Zool. Rept.' p. 306 : C. vulgarit, van, E., Gray, ' Synops. Rept.' 

 p. 58. 



The third variety is C. marginalia, Geoff., ' Croood. d'Egypte,' p. 

 165; C. vulgarit, var., B., Gray, 'Synops. Rept.' part. i. p. 5. 



The fourth variety is the C. complanatus, C. Suchut, Geoff. 



It "may be expected that we should notice the ancient history of 

 an animal held sacred by the Egyptians, and even elevated by them 

 to the rank of a deity, for it was certainly one of the symbols of 

 Typhon. Herodotus, Aristotle, Diodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch, will 

 be read with interest on this subject. While it was worshipped in one 

 part of Egypt under the name of Suchus or Souchis, it was eaten at 

 Klephantine. Cuvier observes that the term SoDxos, or SoD^is, was 

 only applied to the sacred individual, as Apis, Mnevis, and Pacis were 

 appellations of the deified bulls of Memphis, Heliopolis, and Hennon- 

 this respectively, and not intended to designate particular races of 

 oxen. Geoffroy St. Hilaire is of a different opinion from Cuvier, who 

 considered that Charnpsa,* as used by Herodotus, was not applied by 



K>.I'T< It K. * ( <xMu., iXii X *ft4m But they are not called Crocodiles, 

 but Champiw. 



(Crocodilut tuJgaris}. 



ovaL The carinso which surmount the bony pieces forming the dorsal 

 cuirass are low, but the crest of the tail is very much elevated 

 throughout the whole of its length. 



The Caimans and Crocodiles, in their youth, have the head short in 

 proportion to the size which it exhibits at their full growth. The 

 contrary obtains among the Gavials, for in them the head is propor- 

 tionally longer in youth than it is in age, so that it has the appearance 

 of becoming shorter as the animal increases in size. (Dume'ril and 

 Bibron.) 



G. Gangeticut, the Narrow-Beaked Crocodile of the Ganges, Edw., 

 ' Phil. Trans.' It is the Crocodilus mauiUi* teretibus subcylindraceis, 

 ' Gronov. Zooph. ;' Crocodile, Merck, ' Hess. Beytr.' ; Lacerta Gange- 

 tica, Gmel. ; Le Gavial, Lac5p., ' Hist. Quad. Ovip. ;' Le Gavial, Bonn., 

 ' Encyc. M(5th. ;' Crocodile du Gauge ou Gavial, Fauj. Saint Fond, 

 ' Hist. Mont. Saint-Pierre ;' Crocodilut longirostrii, Schneid., ' Hist. 

 Amph. ;' Le Gavial, Latr., ' Hist. Rept. ;' Gangetic Crocodile, Shaw, 

 ' Gener. Zool. ;' Crocodilus arctirostris, C. longirostris, Daud., ' Hist. 

 Rept.;' C. longirostris, C. tenuirostris, Cuv., ' Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat ;' 

 C. Gangeticus, C. tmuiros/rit, Tied., Opp. und Libosch, ' Naturg. Amph. ;' 

 Gavialit longirostris, G. tenuirostris, Merr., ' Amph. ; ' Crocodilut 



