258 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Indian Crocodiles inhabit not only rivers and estuaries, but the sea-coasts, and they may be 

 seen floating two or three miles from shore in. calm weather. Those inhabiting small inland waters 

 which are dried up in the rainless season bury themselves and remain in a state of torpor \intil the 

 rains come, when they emerge and are dangerous and hungry. They then will attack man, who has 

 but one means of saving his life or limb, namely, to force his fingers into the eyes of the beast, which 

 immediately lets go its victim, a practice equally known to the Indian of South America, in relation 

 to Alligators, to the negro of Africa, and to the Hindoo. It has been said that a single Crocodile will 

 often appropriate to himself a limited district, which, if it happens to be in the vicinity of a village, 

 will soon be perceived in the loss of the grazing cattle. 



North-eastern Australia has yielded a Crocodile of very unusual shape of head, and it was 

 discovered by Mr. Johnston, of Cardwell, Buckingham Bay, Queensland. Its head and snout 

 are very long, slender, and conical; the forehead is flat between the eyes, and there is a slight 

 convex narrow ridge in front to the middle of the beak. It is called Crocodilus johnstoni 

 (Gray). 



There are two kinds of Crocodile in America ; one is well known, from its very elongate 

 head * and the constriction of the muzzle just behind the large pre-maxillary bones, and from its 

 habits, which are notably interesting to geologists. It has a great range, being found in many of 

 the rivers of the north-east of South America, in Central America, and in some of the West Indian 

 Islands. It has been found in Ecuador, New Granada, Venezuela, Yucatan, Guatemala, Southern 

 Mexico, Cuba, San Domingo, Jamaica, and West Coast of America. A free swimmei-, it takes to the 

 sea, and in this, and to a certain extent in the shape of its snout, resembles some of the Teleosam-s of 

 old which geologists classify as Marine Crocodiles. It preys on large and small animals, and the Jaguar 

 and Tapir fall victims to it, as well as fish. The face is slender, and the forehead is swollen and convex ; 

 the nasal bones recede and the muzzle is conical, oblong, and the nostril is not separated by a ridge. 

 There are two or four small nuchal plates. The legs are fringed and the toes are webbed. Mr. Gray 

 describes an Orinoco Crocodile, which is probably a variety of this one. 



The other American kind is the Cuba Crocodile, or the Aquez palin,f which inhabits Cuba, 

 Mexico, part of South America, and Yucatan. It has an oblong face, with a very convex forehead, s, 

 ridge in front of each orbit converging in front and forming a lozenge-shaped space. There are two or 

 four nuchal plates, and the cervical disc is rhombic and of six large plates. The toes are short in this 

 kind, and the web is very small. 



THE GAVIAL FAMILY. 



The Gavial,J or Nakoo, is a large reptile, with very much of the shape of the Crocodile, but with 

 an exceedingly long and slender face, and the snout with the end swollen, and a great set of teeth. The 

 teeth are tolerably equal, and the first tooth of the lower jaw, as well as the fourth, bites into grooves 

 in the upper; the side teeth are oblique, and altogether thei % e-may be twenty-eight above and twenty- 

 six below. The nostrils are large, and the nasal bone does not form part of them. The orbits 

 look very prominent, because their front margin is much raised, and the back of the head looks 

 massive, because the cervical and dorsal plates form a continuous shield, and are not separated as in 

 the Nile Crocodile. 



It is a lover of the large rivers, of the Ganges especially, and occurs in Nepal, and also in the 

 Malabar rivers, but it has not the range of the Crocodile, which can stand very chilly water. The 

 Gavial is much more aquatic than the Crocodile, and is rarely seen at all, and very rarely indeed out 

 of water. It is a capital swimmer, and its long snout enables it to breathe without showing its body. 

 Fish are its principal prey, and it grows to the length of twenty feet. 



The second genus of the Gavial family is an inhabitant of the Island of Borneo and of some of the 

 neighbouring island-;*, and differs from the Gavial in having a more conical beak, thick at the back ; and 

 the side teeth are erect and are received into pits between the upper ones. These are less numerous 

 than in the Gavial of the Ganges, and the nostrils are not expanded, neither is there a ridge to the 

 orbit. || 



* Crocodilus acutus (Geoff.)=MoUnia amcricana (Gray) = Orinoco crocodile. 

 t Crocodilus rhomlifer (Cuvier) ; Palinia rhomb ifer (Gray). 

 J Gavial is gangeticus. || Tomistoma schlegelii, 



