14 REPTILES. 



Croc, biporcatus, Cuv. ; Le Crocodile <'< deux aretes, Ann. Mus. 

 X, 1, 4 and 11, 8, and Oss. Foss. V, 2d part, same plates and fig., 

 has eight rows of oval plates along the back, and two projecting 

 crests on the upper part of the muzzle. It is found in several 

 islands of the Indian Ocean, and most probably exists in the two 

 peninsulas. 



Croc, acutus, Cuv. ; Crocodile a museau effile, Geoff. Ann. Mus. 

 II, xxxvii, has a longer muzzle, arched at base; the dorsal plates 

 arranged in four lines; the external ones disposed irregularly, and 

 with more salient ridges. From St. Domingo and the other great 

 Antilles. The female places her eggs under ground, and uncovers 

 them at the moment they are about to be hatched*. 



Alligator -f, Cuv. 

 Alligators have a broad obtuse muzzle and unequal teeth, the fourth 



plates or scales. M. Geoffroy calls those which have a longer and narrower muzzle, 

 Croc, suchus ; those whose row of scales behind the cranium consists of six pieces, 

 Croc, marginatus, among which some have six plates in the shield, and others eight; 

 Croc, lacunosus, an individual specimen which only presented two scales behind the 

 cranium, and six plates in the shield; and, finally, another specimen whose charac- 

 ters are referable to some proportions of the head, Croc, complanatus. 



These various Crocodiles also differ in some of the details of the form of the 

 muzzle, and in the lateral scales of the back, but as regards this, and the muzzle 

 particularly, the varieties are still more numerous, and M. Geoffroy acknowledges 

 that nothing is more fugitive than the forms of Crocodiles. This is so much the case, 

 that I dare not elevate the Crocodiles sent from Bengal by M. Duvaucel to the rank 

 of species, although they have a more convex head than any of the others. 



There is another point in which I am compelled to differ from the learned natu- 

 ralist I have just quoted. He supposes that the vai - iety or species with the narrow 

 muzzle remains smaller, is gentle and inoffensive, and that the smallness of its size 

 causes it to be soonest thrown upon the shores by inundations, of which it is thus the 

 precursor, and, from these ideas, is of opinion that it was the object of the religious 

 honours of the Egyptians, and that Suchus, or Suchis, was its specific sppellation. 

 On the contrary, I think I have proved, both by Aristotle and Cicero, that the Cro- 

 codiles venerated by the Egyptians were not less ferocious than the others; it is also 

 very certain, that the species with the narrow muzzle was not the exclusive object of 

 priestly care, for, from the very exact researches of M. Geoffroy himself, it appears 

 that the three embalmed Crocodiles now in Paris are not the Suchus, but the compla- 

 natus, the marginatus, and the lacunosus ; in fine, I am forced to believe that Souc, or 

 Souchis, which, according to M. Champollion, was the Egyptian name of Saturn, was 

 also the specific name of the Crocodile fed at Arsinoe, just as Apis was the name of 

 the sacred bull at Memphis, and Mtievis that of the bull of Hermopolis. With re- 

 spect to this point of antient history, see the various writings of M. Geoffroy, and 

 particularly in the great work on Egypt, as well as my Oss. Foss. torn. V. part 2, 

 p. 45. This last article having been written previous to that of the great work on 

 Egypt, I could not profit by the argument drawn from the difference of the embalmed 

 Crocodiles, an argument furnished me by M. Geoffroy, and one which seems to me 

 strongly to corroborate my view of the matter. 



* The Croc, acutus has been particularly observed by M. Descourtils. — Add, the 

 Croc, rhombifer, Cuv. Ann. Mus. XII, pi. 1, 1; — the Croc, a casque (C. galeatus), 

 Perrault, Mem. pour servir a l'Hist. des An. pi. lxiv, if it should prove (being only 

 known by this figure) a constant species; — the Croc, bisqutatus, Cuv. Ann. Mus. X, 

 11, C, and Oss. Foss. t. V, part 2, pi. 11, f. 6. of which only one or two specimens 

 have ever been seen; — the Croc, calaphractus, Cuv. Oss. Foss. V, part 1, pi. v, f. 1 

 and 2. 



f Or Caiman, the name given to Crocodiles by the negroes of Guinea. The 

 French colonists employ it to designate the species of Crocodile most common about 



