108 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



knocked flying into the river, where his inferior 

 powers of swimming avail not to save him from 

 his foe. 



It has been asserted by competent observers that 

 the Crocodile, if it has seized a victim too bulky to be 

 swallowed at once, thrusts its prey deep into the mud 

 of the river bottom and leaves it there until putre- 

 faction has reduced the corpse to such a state that 

 it can be readily torn into pieces. 



The eggs of C. porosus are long ovals measuring 

 about 3^ inches by 2j inches ; the shell is pure white 

 and of a texture like porcelain ; the yolk has a peculiar 

 rank odour, and is not fluid like the yolk of a bird's 

 egg, but rather viscous, and granulated in appearance. 

 Thirty to forty are laid by a single female in a depres- 

 sion which she makes in the mud, amongst the stems 

 of the Nipa-palms, usually at some little distance from 

 the river-bank. It seems that the mother may exercise 

 a certain amount of supervision 'over her nest, as the 

 following instance shows. My friend Mr. E. A. W. 

 Cox, of the Sarawak service, when returning with 

 some native followers and his dogs from a day's hunting 

 in the swamp-land of the Baram River, came across a 

 Crocodile's nest and proceeded incontinently to destroy 

 all the eggs in it. The natives besought him to fly 

 the spot at once, alleging that the mother was close 

 at hand and would certainly come to wreak vengeance 

 on the destroyers of her progeny. Mr. Cox deter- 

 mined to wait and see what would happen, and, sure 

 enough, after some time a large female Crocodile made 

 her appearance on the scene, and after a prolonged 

 and exciting struggle succumbed to the spear-thrusts and 

 sword-wounds delivered by the waiting hunters. The 



