OF RECENT CROCODILIANS. 155 



Cmier, in his Essay on the species of existing Crocodiles, first published in the 10th 

 volume of the ' Annales du Museum,' and reprinted in his ' Ossemens Fossiles ' under 

 the head oi Le Caiman a paiipieres osseuses {Crocodilus palpehrosus,noh.), after dividing 

 this species into tvFo varieties, expressed a doubt if they vpere not inhabitants of 

 different continents. He observes, " One of my individuals, which has been for many 

 years in the Museum, has on it the half-effaced name of Krokodile noir du Niger in the 

 hand- writing of Adanson," — and proceeds thus : — 



"This naturalist, in his 'Voyage,' speaks of two Crocodiles in the Senegal. M. de 

 Beauvois adds that he saw at Guinea a Crocodile and a Caiman. It is therefore clear 

 that there is a species with the form of a Caiman that inhabits Africa. 



" There remains still an embarrassment. Adanson says his Black Crocodile has the 

 muzzle longer than the Green, which is certainly the same as the Crocodile of tlie Nile ; 

 but we have a specimen ticketed by his own hand which has a much shorter muzzle 

 than that from Egypt. 



" Has Adanson made a mistake in -^vriting this phrase \ or has he erroneously 

 ticketed the specimen"? How are we to disentangle these errors?" &c., vol. v. p. 41. 



Dumeril and Bibron, in their ' Erpetologie Generale ' (vol. iii. p. 75) adopt and 

 repeat all that Cuvier has said, and still doubt if these two varieties may not be found, 

 the one in America, and the other in Africa. 



If Cuvier and his successors had examined the two specimens on which they founded 

 the account of his second variety of C. palpehrosiis, they would have found that they were 

 not only distinct species, but also species belonging to two genera or subgenera. The 

 one which had served as the model for Seba, and which Seba, with the usual inat- 

 tention to true habitats at that period, said came from Ceylon, was a true Alli- 

 gator, and a native of America; and the other, ticketed by Adanson as from the 

 Niger, was really a Crocodile from Africa : so that the sarcastic observation which he made 

 on travellers, and which may in some cases be true, in this instance was uncaUsd for, 

 the traveller being in fact more accurate than the cabinet naturalist ; and Adanson only 

 made a slip of the pen in saying the beak was longer instead of shorter than the common 

 Green Crocodile ; and any one who compares the Black Crocodile of Africa with an 

 American Caiman will not think that M. Beauvois was very much out when he called 

 it a " Caiman." 



Cuvier, in his Essay, when describing Crocodilus hiscutatus, established on the Gavial 

 du Senegal of Adanson, again refers to the Crocodile noir of that author. He states 

 that among the drawings of Adanson there is the figure of a Crocodilus vulgaris, named 

 Crocodile noir, and a Caiman a paupieres osseuses, inscribed the Crocodile vert. This 

 must evidently have been an inadvertence, like the statement of the length of the nose ; 

 but, as Cuvier observed, this is pardonable, as Adanson most probably named tliese draw- 

 ings after he had forgotten them, and had been studying other things, long after his 

 voyage, which occupied some of the first years of his youth. (See Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. 5.3.) 



