244 
On this page 
are given 
portraits of a 
crocodile, an 
alligator, and 
a calman, 
three reptiles 
all very simi- 
lar in appear- 
ance to the 
uninitiated, 
but with 
differences in 
their charac- 
ters which 
should be 
carefully 
studied by 
the amateur before he decides to 
Crocodiles, Keep any of them as 
Alligators, and pets. For instance, 
Caiman. it might be more 
exciting, but less advisable, to 
show intimate hospitality to a 
fourteen -feet long four - hundred - 
year-old Nilotic crocodile than 
to allow your guests to admire 
at a distance the (in comparison) 
harmless alligator. I should be 
very sorry to be the messmate 
of forty full-grown “ crocodiles.” 
“T would rather face a ladies’ 
school,” notwithstanding the well- 
known couplet about these two 
Animal Life 
and the “fool.” There is a small croco- 
dile at the Zoo called “D’Oyly Carte,” 
after the late Mr. Carte, who kept it 
at Weybridge for some time, when it 
escaped into the Thames, causing no little 
consternation in the neighbourhood. A 
reward was offered, and after some time 
it was captured, but, showing a very 
fierce disposition, was deposited in the 
Zoo. Although only about a yard long, 
and young, I do not think anyone 
would dare handle it. It snaps at any- 
thing, and very often jumps up and 
snaps at visitors who stupidly put their 
umbrellas and sticks into the pond. 
lm “Wine 
Uganda Pro- 
tectorate ©’ 
Sir Harry 
Johnston 
gives more 
than one 
interesting 
description of 
AXii et © & a 
Crocodiles, 
who appear, 
he says, to 
exercise a 
centad 
fascination 
over water- 
birds. 
CAIMAN. 
CROCODILE. 
