THE ALLIGATOR. 179 



American continent, the settlers, deceived by the exaggerated 

 accounts of the ferocity of crocodiles in Egypt, allege that 

 the real crocodile is only found in the Nile. Zoologists have 

 however, ascertained that there are in America caymans or 

 alligators with obtuse snouts, and legs not indented, and 

 crocodiles with pointed snouts and indented legs; and in the 

 old continent, both crocodiles and gaviales. The Crocodilua 

 acutus of San Domingo, in which I cannot hitherto speci- 

 fically distinguish the crocodiles of the great rivers of the 

 Orinoco and the Magdalena, has, according to Cuvier, so 

 great a resemblance to the crocodile of the Nile,* that 

 it required a minute examination to prove that the rule 

 laid down by Buffon relative to the distribution of species 

 between the tropical regions of the two continents, waa 

 correct. 



On my second visit to the Havannah, in 1804, I could 

 not return to the Sienega of Batabano ; and therefore I had 

 the two species, called caymans and crocodiles by the inha- 

 bitants, brought to me, at a great expense. Two crocodiles 

 arrived alive ; the oldest was four feet three inches long ; 

 they had been caught with great difficulty, and were con- 

 veyed, muzzled and bound, on a mule, for they were exceed- 

 ingly vigorous and fierce. In order to observe their habits 

 and movements^ we placed them in a great hall, where, by 

 climbing on a very high piece of furniture, we could see them 

 attack great dogs. Having seen much of crocodiles during 

 six months, on the Orinoco, the Rio Apure, and the Magda- 

 lena, we were glad to have another opportunity of observing 

 their habits before our return to Europe. The animals sent 

 to us from Batabano had the snout nearly as sharp as the 

 crocodiles of the Orinoco and the Magdalena (Crocodilus 



* This striking analogy was ascertained by M. Geoffrey de Saint- 

 Hilaire in 1803, when General Rochambeau sent a crocodile from San 

 Doaiingo to the Museum of Natural History at Paris. M. Bonpland 

 and myself had made drawings and detailed descriptions in 1801 and 

 1802, of the same species which inhabit the great rivers of South America, 

 during our passage on the Apure, the Orinoco, and the Magdalena. 

 We committed the mistake so common to travellers, of not sending them 

 at once to Europe, together with some young specimens. 



+ M. Descourtils, who knows the habits of the crocodile better than 

 any other author who has written on that reptile, saw, like Dumpier and 

 myself, the Crocodilus acutus often touch his tail with his mouth. 



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