Length of Crocodiles. 49 



wounded, or at least shot at. It is true that with a vast crowd of beaters 

 and the backing of several reliable guns the danger is but small; while the 

 dog method, about which we have heard so much lately in connection with 

 a holocaust by an American hunter, which included a few good lions, but 

 many of a tender age, is almost devoid of danger, and, far from being a new 

 thing, was on one occasion utilised by that good sportsman Mr. Butter with 

 great success. The large number of fatal accidents, though in many cases 

 due to the inexperience and want of steadiness of the sufferers, shows how 

 true it is that the genuine sportsman, who hunts single handed and on foot, 

 runs the very greatest risk when following up wounded animals into more or 

 less dense covert. MANNLICHER. 



Field, April 27, 1912. 



Then to conclude this chapter I will give other articles 

 from the same newspaper about the length of African 

 crocodiles. 



I sent a query to the Field of March 12, 1910, asking 

 if anyone could say whether an African crocodile had 

 been killed measuring over 22ft., and here are the replies 

 by the best authorities on the subject, and a further letter 

 I wrote on the same subject : 



MEASUREMENTS OF AFRICAN CROCODILE. 

 In reply to his question on this subject I may refer Mr. D. Lyell to the 

 late Dr. John Anderson's "Reptiles of Egypt," in which (pp. 11-12) the 

 statements made by travellers or other observers regarding the length of 

 Crocodilus niloticus, the common crocodile of Africa, are quoted and 

 discussed. Although there have been reports of crocodiles 5oft. long, 

 Dr. Anderson concludes that there is no record of the actual measurements 

 of any Nile crocodile over lyft, and that the greater size attributed to other 

 specimens has been all guesswork. The limit of growth, however, is quite 

 unknown. G. A. BOULENGER. 



In reference to Mr. LyelPs query in last week's Field it may be 



mentioned that it is very difficult to obtain trustworthy information with 

 regard to the maximum dimension of crocodiles of any kind, and that this 

 is especially so in the case of the African Crocodilus niloticus. Those who 

 shoot them seldom take the trouble to measure such as are brought to land. 

 That Indian crocodiles commonly attain a length of from I5ft. to 2oft. is 

 well known, and there is little, if any, doubt that they sometimes grow to a 

 much greater size. It is stated, for instance, in Gunther's " Reptiles of 

 British India," that both C. porosus and C. palustris sometimes grow to3oft, 

 and there is in the British Museum a skull of the first-named species killed 

 in Bengal in 1840, which was stated by the donor to have belonged to a 



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