82 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
driven well into the ground, and the other end in my hand. I would just glory 
in tightening it at the first call, and wouldn’t I just pull! I think the lapwing is 
the worst offender, as he is there all the time, and does not even fly away, espe- 
cially later on when they have young ons. The brahminy flies off before you 
come very near, and if the crocodile stays on after he flies off, you may be pretty 
sure of a shot. Herons are also rather a nuisance, but they fly off even before 
the brahminy and don’t usually make much noise about it. Another frequent 
source of annoyance is that just as you are getting near your shooting point 
after a careful stalk, an unwitting native selects precisely that time and place to 
go and have a drink. One generally feels relief on these occasions by blowing 
off a bit of steam, and the padre might not like it. I don’t know why a bit of 
bad language relieves one’s feelings, but it certainly does have that effect. 
The short snouter or man-eating crocodile is called a mugger (Crocodilus 
yalustris) or a bocha by the natives, and the long snouter a gavial, gharial or 
nakaar (Gavialis gangeticus). This latter name is applied to all long snouters, 
but the male one, after attaining a certain stage of maturity, develops a large 
knob on the point of his snout, on the upper jaw, under which his nostrils 
are ; he is then called a Basoolia nakaar or just simply a Lasoolia. I believe 
the above explanation is correct, but do not know for certain, and I should 
like some definite information on the subject. The male grows considerably 
longer than the female, which attains to about fourteen feet from my observations 
I have shot males up to seventeen feet, and have seen some slightly larger, or 
which appeared so. The short snouter is a shorter but very much heavier animal 
especially as he gets bigger. Anything over thirteen feet is a big short snouter. 
If any of my readers could give me details of large animals of either kind, I should 
be much obliged. I should like, if possible, to know what the record size is. 
I believe that in the Sunderbands* they grow to an enormous size, but I have 
never seen any there. Tley have enormous heads, though that is not noticed 
till you see them at fairly close quarters. 
Out of an animal 133 feet long I took a complete corpse. It was in three 
portions, the head and body complete and the legs separate. That will give 
you an idea of what they can swallow. Their skins are very much tougher and 
thicker than the long snouters’ skins, and take more work to remove them from 
the carcase. If you have the option of choosing between two animals of equal 
length as to which you will shoot, the long or the short snouter, you have one 
or two things to consider. The long snouter will give you slightly less skin 
but the short snouter is much more difficult to kill, and so a less certain bag. 
Unless it is a really big short snouter, I would advise shooting the other. Ina 
big short snouter there is always a greater element of excitement, you also make 
curious finds in his stomach, stich as bangles, anklets, etc.. The long snouter 
sticks to fish and turtles, though I have heard of bangles being found in them. I 
don’t trouble to examine them myself. In both species, however, there is. 
always a collection of stones, sometimes quite large, swallowed, I suppose, to aid 
digestion. Small long snouters of from 3 to 6 feet or even a little larger may 
readily be killed with shot from close ranges, say ten to fifteen yards, with shot 
varying from No. 4 to AAA. For slightly larger animals L.G. is best. Always. 
aim for the head or neck, though when using L. G. I am inclined to aim at the 
body, as two or three simultaneous blows spread over an area of about 9 inches. 
gives the animal a tremendous shock, and as you must be quite close to use it at. 
all, you will probably have time to rush in and get it ashore before it recovers. 
*The big Mugger of the Sunderbands is a different species to the short-snouter 
(C. pajustris) Mr. Shortt writes about. The big Mugger of the Sunderbands is the 
sea-going erccodile (C. porosus) which is considered more dangerous and ferocious 
than palustris. According to Boulenger in the Fauna of British India C. yorosus 
attains a length of 33feet. The largest palustris in the British Museum is 12 feet. 
long— Eps. 
