S/.UIUANS. 13 



fourth ones below passing, when the jaws are closed, into notches, and not 

 into holes in the upper one ; the external edges of the hind feet are 

 notched, and the feet themselves palmated to the very ends of the toes ; 

 two large holes in the bones of the cranium behind the eyes may be felt 

 through the skin. They have as yet been found only in the antient con- 

 tinent. The most common is 



Lac. gangetica, Gm. ; Gavial du Gauge, Faujas. Hist, de la 

 Mont, de St. Pierre, pi. xlvi ; Lacep. I, xv. A species which at- 

 tains a great size, and which, besides the length of its muzzle, is 

 remarkable for a stout cartilaginous prominence which encircles its 

 nostrils, and then inclines backwards*. 



Crocodiles']-, properly so called, 



Have an oblong and depressed muzzle, unequal teeth, the fourth ones be- 

 low passing into notches, and not into holes of the upper jaw, and all the 

 remaining characters of the preceding subgenus. They are found in 

 both continents. 



Lac. crocodilus, L. ; Crocodile du Nil., Geoffr. Descr. de l'Egyptc, 

 Rep. II, 1; Ann. Mus. X, iii, 1; Cuv. lb. X, pi. 1, f. 5 and 11, 

 f. 7, and Oss. Foss. V, part 2, same plate and figure, (The Common 

 Crocodile, or Crocodile of the Nile), so celebrated among the an- 

 tients, has six rows of square and nearly equal plates along the 

 whole length of the back^. 



* This prominence is the foundation of ^Elian's remark (Hist. an. LXII, c. 41), 

 that the Ganges produces Crocodiles which have a horn on the end of the muzzle. 

 See its figure and description by Geoff. St. Hilaire, Mem. du Mus. XII, p. 97. 



Add, the Petit Gavial (Croc, tenuirostris, Cuv.), Faujas. loc. cit. pi. xlviii, should 

 it prove to he a distinct species. 



N.B. The calcareous schist of Bavaria has produced a small fossil Gavial of a 

 peculiar species, described by Soemmering in the Mem. of the Acad, of Munich, of 

 1814. 



I have described the crania and other parts of fossil Crocodiles allied to the Ga- 

 vials found at Caen, Honfleur, and other places, and marked those points in which 

 the osteology of their cranium differs from that of the Gavial now in existence. See 

 Oss. Foss. V, part 2. Similar observations have also been made in England, by M. 

 Conybeare. In consequence of these differences, which all relate to the hind part of 

 the palate, M. Geoffroy has thought proper to form two genera of these lost animals, 

 which he calls Theleosaurus and Steneosaurus, notwithstanding which, he ap- 

 pears to think that the living Gavials may have descended from them, and that the 

 differences between them may have resulted from atmospheric changes. Mem. du 

 Mus. XII. 



f Krokodeilos, which fears the shure, a name given by the Greeks to a common 

 Lizard of their country; they afterwards, in their travels through Egypt, applied it 

 to the Crocodile from the mutual resemblance. Herodot. Lib. II. Merrem has 

 changed the name of this subgenus to that of Chamtses, which, according to Hero- 

 dotus, was the Egyptian name of this animal. 



X From the Senegal to the Ganges, and beyond it, we find Crocodiles very similar 

 to the common one, some of which have a rather longer and narrower muzzle, an I 

 others, a difference in the plates or scales which cover the top of their neck; but it 

 is very difficult to arrange them as distinct species, on account of their intermediate 

 gradations. The small insulated scales which form a transverse row immediately 

 behind the cranium, vary from two, to four and six; the approximated scales which 

 compose the shield of the neck are generally six in number, but sometimes there is 

 a smaller one at but little distance from each of the anterior angles of this shield, 

 and at others it is contiguous to it, in which case it (the shield) consists of eight 



