order sauria. 101 



The Gavials. Cuv. 



Have the muzzle narrow, and greatly elongated. 

 The teeth are pretty nearly equal — the fourth below 

 passing, when the mouth is closed, into notches, and 

 not into holes of the upper jaw. The hind feet are 

 indented at the external edge, and palmated to the 

 end of the toes. There are two large holes in the 

 bone of the cranium behind the eyes, which may be 

 perceived through the skin. They have been as yet 

 observed only on the ancient continent. 

 The most known is, — 



The Gavial of the Ganges. Lac. Gangetica Gm. 

 Faujas Hist, de la Mont St. Pierre, pi. xlvi. 

 Lacep. I. XV. 



A species which becomes very large, and which, 

 independently of the length of its muzzle, is remark- 

 able for a thick cartilaginous prominence surround- 

 ing the nostrils, and thrown backwards.* 



* This prominence occasioned Elian to assert, that there exist in the 

 Ganges some crocodiles which have a horn on the end of the muzzle. — 

 Stethe description and figures of it by M. GeofFroy St. Hilaire, Mem. du 

 Mus, XII. p. 97. 



Add the Little Cavial {Croc. Tenuiroslris, Cuv,), Faujas loc. cit. 

 pi. xlviii. — if, indeed, it be a distinct species. 



N. B. The calcareous schists of Bavaria have produced a little fjssil 

 gavial of a peculiar species, which has been described by M. Soemmering, 

 in the Memoirs of the Acad, of Munich for 1814. 



I have publsihed an account of the crania, and other parts of fossil cro- 

 codiles, approximating to the gavial, found at Caen, Honfleur, and other 



