100 CLASS REPTILIA. 



those of other reptiles ; and some fleshy fibres adhe- 

 rent to that part of the peritoneum which covers the 

 liver, give them some appearance of a diaphragm. 

 This, added to the fact of their heart being divided 

 into three compartments, where the blood which 

 comes from the lungs does not mix so completely 

 with that of the body as in other reptiles, approxi- 

 mates the crocodiles a little more to the warm- 

 blooded quadrupeds. 



The OS tympani and pterygoid process are fixed 

 to the cranium, as in the tortoises. Their eggs are 

 hard, and as large as those of geese ; and the cro- 

 codiles are animals whose two extremes of magni- 

 tude — those at birth and full growth — are decidedly 

 the most different. The females watch their eggs, and 

 when the young are excluded, they take care of them 

 for a few months. 



The crocodiles are inhabitants of the fresh water, 

 and are extremely carnivorous ; not being able to 

 swallow their prey in the water, they drown it, and 

 suffer it to remain in some subaqueous cavity until 

 it putrifies, before they eat it. 



The crocodiles differ so much from the lizards in 

 general, that some recent writers have made a sepa- 

 rate order of them. They are the Lome at a of 

 Merrem and Fitzinger, and the Emydosauria of De 

 Blainville. 



The species, which are more numerous than was 

 formerly imagined, are referred to three distinct 

 sub-genera. 



