THE POSSIBILITY OF EDUCATING CROCODILES. 277 



This negro king, although a barbarian, has the 

 same tastes as some of these ancient masters of the 

 civilized world, whose fortunes were founded by the 

 great man that bore the name of Caesar ; he is likewise 

 on an equal footing with the divine Heliogabalus, who 

 also kept and fed crocodiles, confirming the adage, 

 "birds of a feather flock together."* 



All this goes to prove that the crocodilians are not 

 mere machines, that they can remember, and regulate 

 themselves according to circumstances, and can show 

 themselves very different at different times and fit 

 different places. 



But the change is never so great as to render un- 

 recognizable the portrait, sufficiently true, which Julian 

 has traced of the crocodilian species whilst painting 

 only that of the crocodile. 



The Greek author thus expresses himself: "The 

 crocodile, naturally timid, wicked, knavish, and very 

 cunning, displays much quickness and subtlety 

 whether it be in carrying off a prey, or in laying a 



* Scaurtis, the edile, was the first Roman who exhibited cro- 

 codiles to the people. He showed five. This magnificence was 

 far surpassed afterwards by Augustus, Antoninus, and by the 

 above-named brilliant Emperor. Clement Augustus carried 

 the luxury so far as to bring together into the circus of Flami- 

 nius, expressly filled with water, no less than thirty- six crocodiles, 

 on which he let loose a proper number of combatants unless it 

 were better to say the crocodiles were let loose upon the men. 



