CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS. IT, 



the shore except for this purpose. So admirable an account of the manner in which the 

 Turtle behaves when laying her eggs is written by Audubon, that the description must 

 be given in his own words. 



" On nearing the shore, and mostly on fine calm moonlight nights, the Turtle raises her 

 head above the water, being still distant thirty or forty yards from the beach, looks around 

 her, and attentively examines the objects on shore. Should she observe nothing likely to 

 disturb her intended operations, she emits a loud hissing sound, by which such of her 

 enemies as are unaccustomed to it are startled, and apt to remove to another place, 

 although unseen by her. 



Should she hear any more noise, or perceive any indication of danger, she instantly 

 sinks and goes off to a distance ; but should everything be quiet, she advances slowly 

 towards the beach, crawls over it, her head raised to the full stretch of her neck, and 

 when she has reached a place fitted for her purpose, she gazes all around in silence. 

 Finding all well, she proceeds to form a hole in the sand, which she effects by removing it 

 from under her body with her hind flappers, scooping it out with so much dexterity, that 

 the sides seldom, if ever, fall in. The sand is raised alternately with each flapper as with 

 a ladle, until it has accumulated behind her, when, supporting herself with her head and 

 fore-part on the ground, she, with a spring from each flapper, sends the sand around her, 

 scattering it to the distance of several feet. 



In this manner the hole is dug to the depth of eighteen inches or sometimes more 

 than two feet. This labour I have seen performed in the short space of nine minutes. 

 The eggs are then dropped one by one and disposed in regular layers to the number of one 

 hundred and fifty, or sometimes nearly two hundred. The whole time spent in this 

 operation may be about twenty minutes. She now scrapes the loose sand back over the 

 eggs, and so levels and smooths the surface, that few persons on seeing the spot would 

 imagine that anything had been done to it. This accomplished to her mind, she retreats 

 to the water with all possible despatch, leaving the hatching of the eggs to the heat of 

 the sand. 



When a Turtle, a loggerhead for example, is in the act of dropping her eggs, she will 

 not move, although one should go up to her, or even seat himself on her back ; but the 

 moment it is finished, off she starts, nor would it be possible for one, unless he were as 

 strong as Hercules, to turn her over and secure her." 



CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS. 



ACCOEDING to the arrangement of the national collection in the British Museum, the 

 link next to the tortoise tribe is formed of an important group of reptiles, containing the 

 largest of the reptilian order, larger indeed than most present inhabitants of the earth, 

 if we except one or two African and Indian animals, and some members of the cetaceous 

 tribe. As is the case with nearly all reptiles, they are carnivorous, and owing to their 

 great size, strength of muscle, voracity of appetite and the terrible armature of sharp 

 teeth with which their jaws are supplied, they are the dread of the countries which they 

 inhabit, ruling the rivers with a sway as despotic as is exercised by the lion and tiger on 

 land, the eagle in the air, or the shark in the seas. 



On account of the peculiar manner in which their bodies are covered with square, 

 keeled, bony plates embedded in the skin, and protecting the body with an armour that 

 effectually guards its upper and more exposed portions from any ordinary weapon, they 

 are separated from the true lizards and scientifically termed EMYDOSAUEI, or Tortoise- 

 lizards, the bony plates being considered to have a certain analogy with those of the 

 shielded reptiles. By some zoological authors these animals are termed LORICATA or 

 Mailed Reptiles, from the Latin word lorica which signifies a coat of mail or cuirass. 



