650 AMFHIBIJTLA. 



into liis triumph over Cleopatra, as well as several others, for the 

 entertainment of the people. 



A vulgar error seems to have long prevailed relative to this ani- 

 mal's moving his upper jaw. This error seems to have been first 

 rectified by Grew, in his description of the skeleton of a crocodile 

 in the .Museum of the Royal Society. His words are these: "The 

 articulations of the lower jaw wilh the upper, and of the occiput 

 with the foremost vertebra of the neck, are here made both in the 

 same manner, as in other quadrupeds, notwithstanding the tradition 

 of his moving the upper jaw : the senselessness of this tradition is 

 plain from the structure of the bones, that is, the articulation only 

 of the occiput with the neck, and of the nether jaw with the upper, 

 as abovesaid." 



[G?ew. Shazv, 



SUCTION HI. 



Alligator. 

 Lacerta alligator. Li nn. 



So very great is the general resemblance between this animal and 

 the crocodile, that many naturalists have been strongly inclined to 

 consider it as a mere variety, rather than a distinct species. Among 

 others, the Count de Cepede is of this opinion, and declares, that 

 on examining several specimens of American crocodiles,aud collating 

 them with those of the Nile, he could not but consider them as ab- 

 solutely of the same species; and that the slight differences ob- 

 servable between them may be well supposed to be owing merely 

 to the effect of climate. Both animals, he observes, agree in the 

 number of teeth ; and the general manners and habits of both are 

 found to be similar in the old and new continent. The more accu- 

 rate discrimination, however, of Blumeobach and some others, seems 

 in reality to prove that the alligator, or American crocodile, is spe* 

 cifically distinct from the Nilotic, though the difference is Dot such 

 as immediately to strike a general observer. The leading difference, 

 if it be allowed to constitute a distinction of species, seems to be, 

 that the head of the alligator is rather smooth on the upper part, 

 than marked with those very strong rugosities and hard carinated 

 scales which appear on that of the crocodile; and that the snout is 

 considerably flatter and wider, as well as more rouuded at the ex- 



