CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 143 



deposit their eggs in the mud. It thus happens 

 that three or four females are killed to every 

 male, so people come to the hasty conclusion 

 that the females are much more plentiful. The 

 probability is, on the contrary, that, by remain- 

 ing out of reach, the males survive in greater 

 numbers than their mates. Some of the big 

 tank crocodiles are very vicious, and, though 

 human beings mostly keep out of their way, 

 many a dog goes into their jaws. I remember 

 being told of one case, though, in Ceylon, in 

 which a crocodile grabbed a terrier in its teeth 

 and sailed away with it. Fortunately the dog's 

 owner was on the bank, and he immediately 

 put a bullet in the crocodile's head, with the 

 result that it at once dropped its prey. The 

 terrier swam ashore with all its might, and the 

 crocodile gave chase, but the brute was kept 

 off by repeated shots fired just behind the dog. 

 The terrier was badly bitten, but its wounds 

 soon healed. Curiously enough, it learnt no 

 lesson from its accident, but had to be forcibly 

 prevented from jumping into the same tank 

 again shortly afterwards. It may, of course, 

 have been an uncommonly foolish terrier. I 

 do not know its history. Yet this kind of story 

 always occurs to me whenever I hear some 

 particularly devoted admirer of dogs holding 

 forth about their superiority to ourselves. It 

 is difficult to imagine any man, not an idiot, 



