GAVIAL AND TIGER 



351 



Alligator. 



like tail, resting on short legs, stamp them with a peculiar 

 frightfulness, and proclaim the baseness of their instincts. 



The short-snouted, broad-headed Alligators, or Caymen, belong 

 to the New World ; the Gavials, 

 distinguished by their straight, long, 

 and narrow jaw, are exclusively 

 Indian ; while the oblong-headed 

 Crocodiles are not only found in 

 Africa and Asia, but likewise infest 

 the swamps and rivers of America. 

 All these animals, however, though different in form and name, 

 have everywhere similar habits and manners ; so that, in general, 

 what is remarked of the one may be applied to the others. 



Awkward and slow in their movements on the land, they are 

 very active in the water, darting along with great rapidity 

 by means of their strong muscular tail and their webbed hind 

 feet. They sometimes bask in the sunbeams on the banks of 

 the rivers, but oftener float on the surface, where, concealing 

 their head and feet, they appear like the rough trunk of a tree, 

 both in shape and colour, and thus are enabled the more easily 

 to deceive and catch their prey. 



In America, many a slow-paced Capybara, 

 coming in the dusk of evening to 

 slake its thirst in the lagune, has 

 been suddenly seized by this insidious 

 * foe ; and the Grangetic Gavial is said 

 to make even the tiger his prey. When 

 the latter quits the thick cover of the 

 jungle to drink at the stream, the 

 Gravial, concealed under water, steals 

 along the bank, and, suddenly emerg- 

 ing, furiously attacks the tiger, who never declines the combat ; 

 and though in the struggle the Gravial frequently loses his eyes 

 and receives dreadful wounds on the head, he at length drags 

 his adversary into the water, and there devours him.* 



In order to observe the manner in which the Alligator seizes 

 its prey, Kichard Schomburgk frequently tied a bird or some 

 large fish to a piece of wood, and then turned it adrift upon the 

 stream. Scarcely had the Cayman perceived his victim, than 



* Forbes' " Oriental Memories," vol, i. p. 357. 



or Water-pig, 



Cajiybara. 



