106 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



the natives who were standing by, so that it was a 

 case of sauve qui peut. Even this youngster could 

 deliver a blow with its tail which stung the legs like 

 the lash of a heavy cart-whip. 1 



I once had a batch of eggs of this Crocodile brought 

 to me, and on opening some of them they proved to 

 contain nearly fully developed embryos. I was much 

 amused to find that if the egg membranes were stripped 

 from off these blind unborn babes and their muzzles 

 gently tickled with a lead pencil, they instantly seized 

 it between their jaws. Thus early does the ferocious 

 instinct manifest itself in this cruel reptile. C. porosus, 

 like all the members of the Crocodile tribe, is fond of 

 sunning itself on river-banks with its jaws widely open 

 a habit, the object of which it is not easy to explain. 2 

 I am inclined to suppose that it is connected with the 

 respiratory needs, for I have observed more than once 

 that if a Crocodile has its jaws tightly lashed together, 

 and is then exposed to the full blaze of a tropical sun, 

 it will die in an amazingly short space of time in fact, 

 this was the usual way in which we killed the specimens 

 that were brought to the Museum. 



I once received from an officer in the Sarawak 

 service a number of pebbles, which, together with 

 some peculiar-looking objects, he had removed from 

 the stomach of a large Crocodile killed in his district. 

 The latter I could not at first identify, but at last came 

 to the conclusion that they were the empty and de- 

 flated eggshells of some species of Turtle (probably 



1 When the head is cut off the eyes continue to blink, and it 

 will snap its jaws on a stick for some little time. C. H. 



2 Natives say that sandpipers pick something off the teeth of 

 the Crocodile. C. H. 



