194 CLASS REPTILIA. 



the sand. There were thirty eggs in it. The negroes^ who 

 accompanied him carried them away for the purposes of 

 food. 



It is said' that the hippopotamus is one of the most formid- 

 able enemies of the crocodile; but the most dangerous, 

 without question, is the ichneumon, which devours its eggs. 

 It was even formerly pretended that this little animal was 

 accustomed to enter the throat of this reptile while it was 

 sleeping in the sun, and to tear its entrails : a fable which has 

 long been utterly refuted. It was also asserted that the 

 crocodile was the friend of the WTen, and that this little bird 

 used to perform for it the office of a dentist, cleansing its 

 teeth from worms, which get between them, and from the 

 flesh which happens to be there, — another fable still more 

 ridiculous than the former. 



The double-crested crocodile is the most common species 

 in all the rivers which lead to the Indian ocean. It is found 

 in Java. Peron has observed it at Timor, and the Sechelles 

 islands. M. Delabillardiere informed M. Cuvier that it is a 

 general opinion at Java that this animal never devours its 

 prey on the spot, but that it buries it in the mud or sand, 

 where it suffers it to remain untouched for three or four 

 days. 



In accounts of Macassar we read, that in the great river 

 of that island there are crocodiles so ferocious that they do 

 not confine themselves to making war on fish, but assemble 

 in troops to watch the boats, and endeavour to overturn 

 them, that they may devour the men who are in them. 



It appears that this species is also to be met with in the 

 rivers of Corea, and even in China. 



The crocodile of St. Domingo was first published as a 

 distinct species by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, on an individual 

 sent to the Museum of Paris by General Rochambeau. Pere 

 Plumier had, however, described, drawn, and dissected this 



