138 DR. J. E. GRAY'S SYNOPSIS OF TH:E SPECIES 



a. TIte dorsal scales in six longitudinal series ; the vertebral ones elongated 



like, the others. . . 



1. OoPHOLis POROSUS. (The Saltwater Crocodile.) 



Crocodi/iis porosus, Schn. Amph. 159. Gray,Cat. Tort. & Croc. &c. Brit. Mus. 58; P. Z. S. 1861, 140. 



Crocodilus oopholis, Schu. Amph. ii. 165. , 



Crocodilus Upm-catua, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 65, t. 1. f. 4, 18, 19 (young skulls) ; t. 2. f. 8. Miiller 

 and Schlegel, Verh. t. 3. f. 6 (middle-aged slaill). Owen, Cat. Osteol. Mus. Col. Surg. 159, 

 nos. 719, 723, 724, 727, 738. Huxley, Jouru. Proc. Linn. Soc. Zool. iv. 11. Blainv. Osteogr. 

 Crocod. t. 1, t. 3. f. 1, t. 4. f. , t. 52. 



Crocodlhis amtus, Owen, Cat. Osteol. Mus. Col. Surg. 157, no. 713. 



Champse fissipes , AVagler, Amph. t. 17. 



Crocodilus biporcatics raninus, Miiller and Schlegel, Verh. t. 3. f. 7 (aged skull) ! 



Oopholis porosus, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd series, x. 267, 1862. 



Hah. Asia and Au.stralia ; India, Bengal, and Penang (Ilardwicke) ; China {Lindsay) ; 

 Trincomalee ; Borneo {Belcher); Tenasserim coast {Packman); Siam, Cambogia {2Iouhot). 



\av. av.itralis, Giinther. 



Crocodile, Landsljorough, Explor. of Australia, i. 70. 



Hab. North Australia {Elsey & Kraig). 



Dr. Giinther has pointed out to me that all the Australian specimens which we ha^e 

 examined have one cross band of the shield less than the Indian specimens; that is to 

 say, they have sixteen, and the Indian specimens seventeen bands of shields from the 

 neck to the base of the tail. That is the case both in the small specimen in spirits and 

 the large specimen, 17^ feet long, which was procured by ^Ir. Kraig. 



In the British Museum there is the skin of an adult from N.E. Australia, another, 

 13 feet long, received from the Zoological Society, and several (two-thirds half-grown) 

 young specimens, stuffed, and several young specimens in spirits. 



The largest skull in the British Museum is 29 inches long ; the adult skulls vary from 

 29 to 31 inches in length ; a half-grown species is 19 inches long. The skull 26 inches 

 long, is said to be from an animal caught in Bengal that was 33 feet long. 



Cuvier figures the skulls of young and half-grown specimens. S. Miiller and Schlegel 

 figure two skulls, one under the name of G. hiporcatus (f. 6), and the other (J. hipor- 

 catus raninus (f. 7) : the latter seems to be from an adult or aged animal ; the former 

 (f. 6) from a full-grown one before the skull is thickened and spread out. Another 

 specimen, figured as C. lijjorcafiis ranimis (f 8), appears to be from a specimen of 

 Crocodilus or Bomhifrons siamensis. It certainly is not an Oojjholis, from the form of 

 the dorsal scales and the presence of the nuchal ones. 



There is a good series of skulls of this species in the Museum of the College of 

 Surgeons ; but No. 725, named C. biporcatns in the Catalogue, is the skull of an adult 

 Crocodilus vulgaris; and No. 713, called Crocodilus acutus in the Catalogue, is Oopholis 

 iwrosus. 



