148 DE. J. E. GEAT'S SYNOPSIS OP THE SPECIES 



The largest specimen in the British Museum is nearly 15 feet long. There is a very 

 tine skull received from old Calabar, whose greatest width behind is 13 inches, length 

 above upper surface from end of nose to back of occiput 22 inches, width at the larger 

 lateral tooth 7f inches, at the notch 4f inches. The intermaxillary bones are produced 

 backwards between the ends of the maxilla. The hinder nasal opening is transverse, 

 inferior, and ascending nearly perpendicularly. The nose has two large oblong diver- 

 ging prominences on the sides — one over the hinder edge of the notch, and the other 

 over the hinder part of the root of the largest tooth, behind the notch. 



There is a second skull from Western Africa in the Museum, of nearly the same 

 length, which is considerably narrower in all its parts. Length along the upper surface 

 from end of nose to back edge of occiput 20^ inches; greatest width behind, 12 

 inches, at largest lateral tooth 6J inches, at the notch of uiclies. 



These two skulls lather differ in the direction of the suture behind the maxillary 

 bones ; in the wider specimen it is much more produced behind than in the other. 



I have examined and compared with care specimens of different ages from North 

 Africa near the Nile, from West Africa at Senegal and Gaboon, South Africa at the 

 Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and a specimen brought from Central Africa by Dr. 

 Baikie ; and though they each exhibited certain peculiarities, yet I believe, as far as the 

 specimens at my command enable me to form a judgment, that they all belong to a 

 single species which is generally distributed over the African continent. 



At the same time, from the slight differences which the specimens from the different 

 localities do exhibit, I should not be surprised, if we had a complete series of perfect 

 specimens and of skulls of different ages from each locality, to find that there were 

 sufficient differences between them to show that each locality has a special local 

 variety or, perhaps, species; but unfortunately there is not in the British Museum, or in 

 the other museums and collections to which I ha^ e access, such a series ; all the speci- 

 mens from the cape of Good Hope and West Africa seem to be either in the adult or 

 very young state, while those from the other localities are either very young, or of an 

 intermediate age. 



On the other hand the series of specimens' from the same locality, as from South 

 Africa for example, whence we have most specimens, exhibit variations among them- 

 selves, quite as great as between the specimens from \ arious parts of Africa. 



It is therefore more safe to regard them all as one species. 



These species grow to a large size ; we have a specimen from the Nile and some from 

 the Cape of Good Hope in the British Museum which are nearly 15 feet long. 



The skulls which seem to belong to larger specimens often reach the length of 

 24 or 25 inches. 



The history of the Nile Crocodile is given in great detail in the fifth volume of 

 Cuvier's ' Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles,' v. 43. 



Geoffrey St. Hilaire, in his ' Essay on the Crocodiles of Egypt,' separated the Egyptian 



