148 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



YOUNG BROAD-SNOUTED CROCODILE 

 A native of ffeit Africa, remarkable far the extreme shortness an d great breadth of in tinzlt 



and the feet are more or 

 less webbed. The most strik- 

 ing of its structural adapta- 

 tions is, however, associated 

 with the formation of tilt- 

 creature's skull. The manner 

 in which a crocodile or alli- 

 gator contrives to breathe or to 

 save itself from asphyxiation, 

 when opening and shutting 

 its mouth under water. .1^ 

 it may often be observed t<> 

 do in the Regent's Park 

 Menagerie, is a common 

 source of wonderment to the 

 onlooker. This scemin-ly 

 difficult feat is compassed by 

 virtue of the posterior nos- 

 trils, or breathing-pas-. i 

 being set so far back in the 

 skull, and being so completely 

 cut off from the mouth-cavity 

 by specially developed bones of the palate, that they have no intercommunication with 

 the mouth. It is this mechanism which enables a crocodile to seize and hold an animal 

 underneath the water between its open jaws until it is drowned. Special valves at the 

 back of the mouth prevent any water running down the creature's throat, while it is able 

 itself to breathe unrestrainedly by allowing just the tip of its elongated snout, with the anterior 

 nostril-apertures, to remain above the water's surface. In many species a conspicuous knob- 

 like bony excrescence is developed at the extremity of the snout, by which the nostril-openings 

 are raised turret-wise above the surface of the water. The eyes also being usually elevated 

 above the level of the 

 creature's head, the crocodile 

 is able to approach its floating 

 or bank-side prey practically 

 unperceived, its huge body, 

 limbs, and even the head, 

 with the exception of the 

 nose and eyes, being totally 

 submerged. 



Although capable of 

 moving with great activity 

 in the water, crocodiles and 

 their allies are usually ac- 

 counted sluggish and slow 

 movers on the land. Seen 

 basking in the sun, as is 

 their wont, by the hour 

 together on some sand-bank, 

 or creeping lazily thereon 



among their fellows, such a A DEAD CROCODILE 



conclusion is natural. The 



A man-eating individual. Tnn particular animal aji tuit been tliot. 1 nattvtf i>. 

 Celerity, however, with Which tattfrounJ give a focJ idea of in UM little leu tkan 20 feet lout 



