OF RECENT CROCODILIANS. 149 
specimens into two species under the name of Crocodilus lacunosus and C. marginatus. 
In the “ Annales du Muséum,” vol. x. p. 83, he described a third, under the name 
of C. suchus. 
Professor Owen has figured the skull of a crocodile, from an Egyptian mummy, under 
the name of Crocodilus suchus, Geoff., in the ‘Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of 
the London Clay,’ published by the Paleontographical Society, 1850, t. 1. f. 2. I do 
not see how it differs from the crocodiles at present found in the Nile. See also Huxley, 
Journ. Proc. Linn. Soe. iv. 15. 
In the ‘Catalogue of Tortoises and Crocodiles,’ p. 61, I separated the adult Cape 
crocodiles from the North-African specimens, under the name of C. marginatus, because 
the head is not so narrow; but it is to be observed that most of the North-African speci- 
mens with which I had compared them were of small size, and consequently had the 
head less developed. 
Dr. Baikie described the crocodile of Central Africa, found in the river Kwora 
and Binue (or Niger and Twedda), under the name of Crocodilus binuensis; it is of a 
dark green colour, and lives on the mud-banks or swimming in the rivers. 
Mr. Cope, ‘ Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ’ for 
1859, p. 296, regards the crocodile of Equatorial Western Africa (Ogobai) as the Croco- 
dilus marginatus of Geoffroy. 
Dr. A. Smith, referring the Cape specimens to Crocodilus marginatus, observes, “ they 
are occasionally found in the rivers west of Port Natal, but more abundantly in those to 
the eastward and northward, and occur in such numbers in the rivers in a district north 
of Kurrichane, between 24° and 22° south latitude, that the natives who used to reside 
there were known by the appellation Baguana=the people of the crocodile.”—Zool. 
South Africa, Appendix 2, 1845. 
MM. Duméril and Bibron in their ‘ Erpétologie Générale,’ iv. 104, divided their 
Crocodilus vulgaris into four varieties, thus :— 
Var. a. The Crocodilus vulgaris of Geoffroy, from North Africa, Egypt, and the 
Nile. 
Var. b. Crocodilus palustris, Lesson, described from a specimen sent from the Ganges 
by M. Duvaucel, and from the coast of Malabar by M. Dussumier. 
Var. c. the Crocodilus marginatus, I. Geoffroy, from North Egypt and the Cape of 
Good Hope. 
Var. d. the Crocodile verd of Adanson, from the Nile, the Niger, and Senegal. 
There is no doubt that vars. a, c, and d are true Crocodiles, and are what is considered, 
in this essay to be the Crocodilus vulgaris of Africa. 
Var. 4 on the other hand does not belong to the same genus. I have not the slightest 
doubt this variety is founded on young and half-grown specimens of Bombifrons indicus, 
most distinct from Crocodilus vulgaris by the form of the head and the structure of the 
skull, as MM. Duméril and Bibron would have found, if they had examined any of 
VOL. VI.—PART IV. vy 
