156 DE. J. E. GEAT'S SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES 



A Caiman, in some of its characters, but which is nevertheless a true Crocodile, with 

 the canines fitting into a notch, and not into a pit, in the upper jaw, is, there cannot 

 be any doubt, the Crocodile that Adanson referred to ; for it agrees with his descrip- 

 tion in colour and in its ferocious habits. And further that it is the Crocodile that the 

 French naturalists refer to, is proved by the fact, already recorded, that we have received 

 from one of the persons employed by M. DumerU at the Paris Museum a skeleton 

 of a young specimen of the Black CrocodUe of West Africa as the skeleton of the 

 American AUiffator palijebrosus of Cuvier. 



** Face very long, slender; nasal not reaching to the nostril. Gavialian Crocodiles. 



7. Mecistops. 

 Face subcylindrical, scarcely dilated in the middle ; orbits simple. Nuchal shields 

 numerous, small, in two cross series. Cervical disk narrow, containing two or three 

 pairs of plates. Dorsal plates small, all keeled, in six longitudinal series, lateral 

 one narrowest. Intermaxillary produced behind, and embracing the front end of the 

 nasal. 



Mecistops, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd series, x. 273; Cat. Tortoises & Crocodiles B. M. 58. 

 Huxley, Proc. Linn. See. iv. 15, 1859. 



This genus has some resemblance to the Gavials ; but the stmcture of the skull and 

 the position of the teeth are those of a true Crocodile. 



Professor Owen observes, " There is, however, a very close resemblance in the elon- 

 gate, slender proportion of the skull and the elongated festooned border of the jaws 

 between this species and the Crocodilus schlegelii from Borneo." — Log. cit. p. 158. The 

 Crocodiliis schlegelii is a Gavial. 



Dr. Falconer observes, " The nasal hones (in Mecistops) are extremely narrow and 

 attenuated, but, as in the true Crocodiles, they descend between the maxillaries so as to 

 project into a notch between the intermaxillaries. The same holds good in C. schlegelii, 

 where, as with Gavials, the nasal terminates a short way in front of the orbits, and does 

 not enter into the formation of the anterior portion of the beak " (p. 363). " This cha- 

 racter is a good diagnostic mark between the Crocodile proper and the Gavials, 

 separating C. schlegelii from the latter genus,* under which Miiller ranged it " (p. 363). 



Dr. Balfour Baikie states, " In all essentials the skuU of the Mecistops shows it is to 

 be properly classed as a member of the family Crocodilidse rather than the GavialidiE. 

 The teeth are irregular, the sides of the jaw are not parallel ; there is a distinct swelling 

 opposite the ninth remaining upper molar ; and the lower canines are received into 

 notches in the upper jaw." — P. Z. S. 1857, p. 58. 



