

CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



1. Halcrosia nigra. (Black Afrioan Crooodile.) 



(Figs. 10-13.) 

 •ail, noir <lu Niger, Adanson, US., Mus. Paris (see 

 I'm in-. Oss. Fbu. iii. ]>. 41 ). 

 African Black Crocodile, Gray, Rep. Brft. -I-'-'. 1862, S» 

 p. 107. 



,r. Latr. Jiitt. Nat. Sept. i. p. 510 (from 

 Adanson). 



•dilus palpebrosus, var. 2, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. p. 41, 



I. L'. f. 6 i part. 1. 



odQus trigonatus (part.), Cmi,/-. Oss. Fbss. iii. p. 65. 

 Osl ' ■ ts tetraspis, Cop . Proc Acad. Nat. Set. Phtlad. 

 xii. )>. 550. 



ntatas, A. Mttrray, P. Z. S. 1862, pp. 139, 

 213, fig. head, t. 29, b] Ford. 



•i-h. Syn. Croc. t. 1 (head, young). 

 Halcrosia frontata, Gray, Ann. \ Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. 



x. ]>. 1>77. 

 11 I rosia nigra, Gray, Trans. Zool. Soe. 1869, vi. p. 153. 

 da A&elii, laUjt '■■■■. I'. /.. S. 1867, p. 715. 



\\v-t Africa: Senegal (Adanson); Gaboon; Old 

 Calabar; Ogobai River (Cope). 



Black, slightly mottled with pale whitish. Head pale 

 olive, black-dotted; sides of lower jaw black-banded ; muzzle 

 i. oblong, trigonal, rather dilated on the sides; fore- 

 I high, broad. Bat, with a small tubercle at the front 

 the orbit. Nuchal shields strongly keeled, two in 

 a cross line in two groups. Cervical shields six, in three 

 pairs, all close together; the two anterior pairs of equal 

 size, largi . j keeled, and bent in on the outer sides ; 



the hinder pairs much smaller. The vertebral series of 

 dorsal shields bread, square, scarcely keeled, with one, and 

 in the front of the back two rows of oval, elongated, keeled 

 shields on the side of them, and a few isolated, scattered, 

 compressed, high, tubercular-like small ovate shields on 

 the sides of the body. Shields of the upper arm oblong, 

 trigonal, keeled, in six oblique cross series. The lines of 

 the upper jaw sinuous, three-parted; the front with five, 

 the second with seven,. and the hinder with five teeth. 



The largest specimen I have seen is in the Free Museum 

 at Liverpool, and is nearly five feet long ; but I have no doubt 

 it grows larger. The muzzle of this specimen from the tip 

 of the nose to the orbit is 3| inches, its width in front of 

 the orbit 2| inches, and at the notch of the canine teeth 

 1 1 inch. The eyelid is obliquely divided from the front of 

 the orbit to the back of the eye. 



The Black African Crocodiles appear to be a common 

 species on the west coast of Africa ; for they are often 

 brought to the port of Liverpool by the palm-oil ships, and 

 frequently in a living state ; indeed I am informed that 

 there were some lately alive in the Society's Gardens in 

 the Rescent's Park. 



Mr. Andrew Murray, at my reoommendation, has de- 

 scribed it in the ' Proceedings' of the Society as a now 

 species of Crocodile under I lie name of C. frontatus ; for at 

 that instant it did not occur to me that it might be the 

 Black Crocodile "i' Ldanson, noticed as an Alligator. It 

 is to be observed that, although they have specimens of this 

 Crooodile in the Paris Museum in such abundance as to 

 part with the skeleton of it as a duplicate, it is not in- 

 cluded as Alligator palpebrosus, or under any name, in M. 

 \uguste Dumeril's List of the Reptiles of West Africa, 

 printed in the last volume of the ' Archives du Museum ' 

 of 1'aris. 



This Crocodile has very much the external appearance 

 of the Caiman with bony eyelids, Croeodilus palpebrosus, 

 Cuvier : and I think it very likely that Cuvier mistook a 

 specimen of it in the Paris Museum, which Adanson had 

 marked with his own hand " Krclcodile noir du Niger," for 

 a specimen of that species (see Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. 

 p. 41) ; and it is still confounded with that species by 

 the French naturalists : for there is a specimen in the 

 British Museum, lately sent from M. Braconier, of the 

 French Museum, under the name of Caiman a paupiires 

 osseuses. 



Adanson, in his ' Voyage to Senegal,' at p. 10, mentions 

 the occurrence of Crocodiles, and at p. 73 a second kind of 

 Crocodile, which is as large as the other, and distinguished 

 by the black colour and by the jaws being much more 

 elongated. It is more carnivorous, and said to be fond of 

 human flesh. 



Cuvier, in his essay on the species of existing Crocodiles, 

 first published in the 10th volume of the ' Annates du 

 Museum,' and reprinted in his ' Ossemens Fossiles,' under 

 the head of Le Caiman d paupiires osseuses (Croeodilus 

 palpebrosus, nob.), after dividing this species into two 

 varieties, expressed a doubt if they- were not inhabitants 

 of different continents. He observes, " One of my indivi- 

 duals, which has been for many years in the museum, has 

 on it the half-effaced name of Krokodile noir du Niger in 

 the handwriting of Adanson," — and proceeds thus : — " This 

 naturalist, in his ' Voyage,' speaks of two Crocodiles in the 

 Senegal. M. de Beauvois adds that he saw at Guinea a 

 Crocodile and a Caiman. It is therefore clear that there 

 is a species with the form of a Caiman that inhabits Africa. 



" There remains still an embarrassment. Adanson says 

 his Blade Crocodile has the muzzle longer than the Green, 

 which is certainly the same as the Crocodile of the Nile ; 

 but we have a specimen ticketed by his own hand which 

 has a much shorter muzzle than that from Egypt. 



" Has Adanson made a mistake in writing this phrase ? 



