56 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



chrome yellow, but in reality the entire upper surface of the animal, 

 from snout to tail, is of a uniform olive green, mottled with the 

 former color. Of course the older individuals lose the original 

 brightness of their coloring with advancing age. The under sur- 

 faces are all pale yellow, the iris is green frosted with black, while 

 the jDupil is a very narrow, perpendicular black line. 



It would appear probable from the examination of some of our 

 specimens, that the number of eggs deposited by a female gavial 

 depends upon her size. One of our specimens, 9 feet in length, 

 contained 15 eggs almost ready to be deposited, another measuring 

 10 feet contained 30 eggs, while two measuring between 11 and 12 

 feet contained 41 and 44 eggs respectively. As nearly as I could 

 estimate, all these eggs would have been ready for the sand by 

 about April 1st. As with the eggs of all saurians, these were sub- 

 cylindrical, and pure white. 



Evidently gavi£Js are not man-eaters, or rather man-catchers, 

 else they would certainly have carried off some of my boatmen. 

 Upon many occasions they swam the river as fearlessly as though 

 not a saui'ian existed in it, whereas they actually swarmed there. 

 The natives who live along the river also assured me the ghariyals 

 never caught men. The stomachs of all those I dissected contained 

 only the remains of fishes, and I looked in vain for pieces of dead 

 Hindoos. Still, it is not improbable that gavials devour the bodies 

 of defunct natives who are thrown into the river after undergoing 

 a mock cremation, such as I shall describe fiu'ther on. 



Although the skin of a large gavial is very thick, and the entire 

 back is covered with bony plates nearly a quarter of an inch thick, 

 it is still as sensitive to touch as the bottom of a man's foot. Often 

 when watching gavials that lay apparently sound asleep upon the 

 sand, I have seen them suddenly reach a leg backward or forward 

 to kick off a fly that had alighted upon them. A 9-foot female 

 which I captured was exceedingly ticklish upon the back and sides. 

 Although my shot had broken her neck and she lay apparently 

 dead, the Hghtest scratch with the finger-nail upon her sides or 

 dorsal scales caused her to flinch and squirm violently. Even the 

 tip of a crow's feather drawn hghtly along between the rows of 

 dorsal scales, or across the thin skin of the flanks was attended with 

 the same result. 



Wounded gavials often bawl aloud like calves, when seized by 

 their captors, a thing I have never known any other crocodiles to 

 do. One of our largest specimens, a female 11 feet 6 inches long, 



