HABITS. 251 



of protection, for they have many enemies. In Egypt 

 the mangouste, in America apes, everywhere water- 

 fowls, and in some places men destroy an immense 

 number. Livingstone reports that the Barotses and 

 the Bayeyes, tribes of Southern Africa, are very fond 

 of crocodiles' eggs. " They eat the yolk, rejecting the 

 white, which does not coagulate." 



" In proportion to the increase of the population," 

 -says this writer, "the nests of these odious reptiles will 

 be more and more sought after, and the species will 

 become less numerous." May it be so ! 



Lacepede writes, that in America the apes break 

 a very large number of eggs, not merely to eat them, 

 but in somo measure apparently for the mere fun of 

 the thing. 



Even with the species which abandon their eggs 

 immediately after laying them the cares of maternity 

 are not always confined to nidification. When instinct 

 warns it that its eggs are about to be hatched, the 

 female of the taper-nosed crocodile returns to its nest, 

 unearths its brood, and conducts the young ones to 

 the water. . 



Lacepede denies this, but he is wrong ; the same 

 facts occurred in the countries explored by Livingstone. 

 The negroes even told the latter that the female aids 

 its little ones in coming out of their shells assistance 



