M. bakbot's ceocodile. 411 



maxillary bone, and lifts the whole head like the 

 coved lid of a caddy : by this mechanism the Croco- 

 dile, on elevating its nostrils just barely out of the 

 water, is able to breathe. With the body and head 

 sunk below the surface, it keeps the under jaw 

 pressed upward, and holds fast its drowning victim, 

 its own breathing all the while being carried on at 

 ease. The mouth is open, but the throat is shut, 

 the gular valve being closed against all access of 

 either air or water. 



" In some previous observations set down by me 

 on the Cayman of St. Domingo, identical with our 

 Crocodile, I had mentioned that, beside the habit 

 constantly maintained by a young one kept in the 

 garden of the French consul at Cape Haitien, of 

 stuffing its mangled prey into the pond banks till it 

 was putrid, it used to lie for hours together, with 

 nostrils barely elevated above the water, keeping in 

 its mouth junkets of frogs it had killed, without 

 eating them. I now see that this habit was the young 

 Cayman practising the art of drowning living prey. 

 It did not eat what it had in its mouth while within 

 the water, because its structure was as unsuited for 

 feeding as it was for breathing open-mouthed in 

 that element ; and its feeble palatal organisation 

 could scarcely do more towards gratifying its taste 

 with the portion of frog it held, than keeping con- 

 stantly present a sort of sensual consciousness of 

 food. I have a lively and pleasurable recollection of 

 the garden of Consul Barbot at Cape Haitien. A 

 small plateau at the foot of the Haut du Cap Moun- 

 tain, filled with clumps of shrubberies and scattered 



