CROCODILES. 57 



swallowed whole, but torn to pieces by the 

 powerful jaws and teeth, aided by violent and 

 sudden wrenches of the body from side to side. 

 Thus, in a very short space of time the carcase 

 is broken up and swallowed piecemeal. Having 

 regard to the carnivorous diet, the structure of 

 the stomach is peculiar, inasmuch as its walls are 

 thick and fleshy as is the gizzard of a grain- 

 eating bird, which it furthermore resembles in 

 that the inner walls of this gizzard are hardened. 

 This stomach, however, differs from that of birds 

 in that of the two compartments, of which it is 

 composed, the first forms the gizzard-like portion, 

 whilst the second and much smaller has glandular 

 walls secreting digestive fluids. In birds the 



flandular lies in front of the muscular portion, 

 a flesh-eating birds the walls of the stomach 

 are thin, and one would have expected to find 

 the same conditions obtain in the case of the 

 Crocodile. If the stomach is small, the capacity 

 of the gullet is considerable, and it is in this 

 ante-chamber to dissolution that the prey is 

 stored, being gradually thrust backwards as 

 digestion proceeds. 



The heart differs from that of all other Reptiles, 

 and agrees with that of the higher animals 

 birds and mammals in that it is divided into 

 four chambers, though the separation of the 

 arterial and venous blood is not as complete as 

 in the bird or mammal. 



Finally, we may remark that the Crocodiles 

 differ from all other Eeptiles, as well as from the 

 Birds, in that the chest containing the heart and 

 lungs is, as in the mammals, shut off from the 



