CLASS III. REPTILIA: ORDEll 2. LORICATA. 



367 



HEAD OF CROCODILE. 



its tail, it strikes the animal a violent blow, wlilcli is invariably in tbe direction of the water, and 

 at the same time toward its own mouth. 



Should the animal surprised be of large size, such as an ox or a horse, the crocodile adopts 

 anotlier maneuver, in seizing it by the nostrils, and forcibly dragging it under the water to be 

 drowned. When a tortoise is seized, the crocodile raises its head above water, and with the 

 inconceivable strength of its jaws, crushes the shell in pieces. Men, and particularly negroes, are 

 said to be its favorite prey, and it is greedy after the flesh of dogs ; and hence, the negroes that 

 hunt the crocodile are accustomed to beat the dogs on purpose that their howling may attract 

 it from its haunts. The prey, being drowned, is conveyed to some sub-aquatic hole or receptacle, 

 and left to putrefy before it is devoured ; but the crocodile cannot feed in the water ; it would 

 then, as is usually credited, experience the same fate as its victim ; therefore, except small fishes, 

 the prey is always carried to the land. Its structure, also, is such, that it must rise to the sur- 

 face once in an hour, or an hour and a half, for breathing. Nothing that it once seizes can 

 escape ; it never quits its hold ; even strong levers forced between the jaws for that purpose have 

 proved ineffectual ; and, shaking its prey to pieces, it swallows it without mastication. Much 



