OF EECE>'T CEOCODILIANS. 149 



specimens into two species under the name of Crocodilus lacunosus and C. marcjinatus. 

 In the " Annales du Museum," 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 Palseontographical 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. Soc. 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. marcjinatus, 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 margiiiatus of Geofii'oy. 



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 JBaquana=th.e people of the crocodile." — Zoo/. 

 South Africa, Appendix 2, 1845. 



MM. Dumeril and Bibron in their ' Erpetologie Generale,' iv. 104, divided their 

 Crocodilus vulgaris into four varieties, thus : — 

 Var. a. The Crocodilus vulgaris of Geoffroy, from North Afiica, 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. Geofii-oy, from North Egypt and the Cape of 



Good Hope. 

 Var. d. the Crocodile verd of Adanson, fi-om 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. b 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. Dumeril and Bibron would have found, if they had examined any of 



VOL. YI. PART IV. ^ 



