MOUTH OF THE CEOCODILE. 689 



(1924.) Such are precisely the situations inhabited by Crocodiles and 

 Alligators, the largest of the Saurian reptiles now in existence, animals 

 in every way designed by Nature to feed upon putrefying materials : 

 their tongue (fig. 338, d) scarcely projects from the lining membrane of 

 the mouth, and its surface (e) is studded with large glands ; the whole 

 interior of the mouth is in fact, from its construction, little adapted to 

 gustation. 



(1925.) The Crocodile, nevertheless, likewise kills living prey, which, 

 from the structure of its teeth, it is obliged to effect by dragging its 



Fig. 338. 



Mouth of the Crocodile. 



victim into the water and there drowning it. This mode of proceed- 

 ing, however, simple as it might appear, involves many difficulties. As 

 the reptile has no other instruments of prehension besides its mouth, 

 and is obliged to hold its struggling prey submersed by the strength of 

 its formidable jaws, it is manifest that, without some special con- 

 trivance, the water rushing into the throat of the Crocodile would pre- 

 vent it from breathing quite as effectually as the animal it endeavours 

 to drown ; it might therefore become a question which of the two would 

 survive immersion longest. The mechanism employed under these 

 circumstances to give the Crocodile the advantage over its prey is very 

 complete : a broad cartilaginous plate (fig. 338, /) stands vertically from 

 the os hyoides, and projects upwards into the back part of the mouth ; 

 a similar valve (#) hangs down from the back of the palate, so that the 

 two together form a kind of flood-gate, which, when the mouth is 

 widely opened, effects a complete partition between the cavity of the 

 mouth and the fauces, where the aperture of the larynx (h) is situated. 

 The nostrils, moreover, are placed quite at the extremity of the snout, 



