18 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Caution of the female in depositing her eggs. 



secured the prey, it drags it into the water, 

 instantly sinks with it to the bottom, and in this 

 manner quickly drowns it. Sometimes it hap- 

 pens that the creature wounded by the crocodile 

 makes its escape, in which case the latter pur- 

 sues with some celerity, and often takes it a 

 second time. He seldom moves far from rivers, 

 except in covert and marshy places, so that in 

 many parts of the East it is very dangerous to 

 walk carelessly on the banks of unknown rivers, 

 or among sedgy grounds ; and still more so ta 

 bathe, without the utmost circumspection, in un- 

 frequented places. The crocodile seldom pur- 

 sues his prey far on shore ; and although his 

 pace is tolerably rapid in a direct line, yet he is 

 not sufficiently swift to overtake an active man 

 who preserves his presence of mind. This crea- 

 ture swallows all his food whole; and also stones, 

 it is said, to aid digestion, in the manner of the 

 seed-eating birds. 



The female is said to be extremely cautious in 

 depositing her eggs in the sand unobserved. 

 The general number is from eighty to a hundred. 

 They are not larger than those of a goose, and 

 are covered with a tough white skin ; she fills up 

 the hole carefully before she leaves them. In 

 each of the two succeeding days she lays as 

 many more, which she hides in the same man- 

 ner. The eggs are hatched generally in about 

 thirty days by the heat of the sun, when the 

 young immediately run into the water. These 



