186 CLASS REPTILIA. 



more, according to the species, and bury them in the sand, 

 near the lakes and rivers which they inhabit. They are left 

 to be hatched by the sun. Those of the crocodile of the 

 Nile are about twice as large as the egg of a goose ; but the 

 eggs of the cayman are hardly equal in size to those of the 

 t urkey . They are both whitish, and the shell is of a nature 

 perfectly similar to that of birds' eggs. Their eggs are good 

 eating, though they have a strong smell of musk, and are in 

 great estimation in all the countries inhabited by these ani- 

 mals. 



As soon as the young are born, they hasten to cast them- 

 selves into the water, but the greater number of them be- 

 come the prey of tortoises, of voracious fish, of amphibious 

 animals, and even, as is said, of the old crocodiles. Those 

 which survive, feed, for the first year, only on the larvae of 

 insects, and on very small fish. This fact was verified by 

 M. Bosc, on a nest of these young reptiles, consisting of fif- 

 teen individuals, which he caught in a marsh near his resi- 

 dence in Carolina. He observed that they ate only living 

 insects, and that it was necessary that those insects should 

 put themselves in motion before the young crocodiles would 

 dart upon them, which they then did with great voracity, 

 frequently disputing with each other for the same object. 

 But when this naturalist was daring enough to take them 

 into his hands, they never attempted to do him any injury. 



Even at the conclusion of the first year, the crocodiles are 

 still but small and feeble animals. It is only in the course 

 of the second, that they acquire teeth which are formidable, 

 and that the cranium becomes sufficiently thick to sustain 

 blows with impunity. 



The duration of the life of the crocodile is not exactly 

 known ; but there are facts which tend to prove that it is 

 equal, if not superior, to that of the life of man. They do not 

 moult or cast their skin, and accordingly they thus escape a 



