198 CLASS REPTILIA. 



cited, they are reanimated by the warm days which occur 

 even in winter. He also adds that the pike-muzzled cayman 

 never eats in the water ; but after having drowned his prey, 

 withdraws to devour it. This reptile is said to prefer the flesh 

 of the negroes to that of the whites, but constitutes itself no 

 small portion of the food of many savages. Its voice resembles 

 that of a bull. It is afraid of the shark and the great tortoise, 

 and consequently avoids the neighbourhood of salt or brackish 

 waters. Its mouth always remains shut when it is asleep. 



Bertram appears to have spoken of this species when he 

 relates that they assemble in numerous troops, in fishy places, 

 and that the female deposits her eggs in layers, mixed with 

 alternate beds of earth, so as to form little mounds of three 

 or four feet in height. He adds, that she does not abandon 

 them, and also keeps her young with her many months after 

 their birth. He assures us that he has found some indi- 

 viduals in a strea,m of hot and vitriolic water. 



According to the same traveller, the boldness of this reptile 

 is equal to its strength. He says that his armed compa- 

 nions had to sustain a vigorous combat against one of them 

 who came to attack their camp. At another time, on the 

 banks of the river St. Jean in Florida, he saw two of these 

 animals fight desperately together. 



Its skin is of a thickness and hardness sufficiently great to 

 resist musket balls. It is even said that the negroes form a 

 kind of helmet out of it, that can resist the blow of a hatchet. 

 To hit the animal at all with effect it must be aimed at under 

 the belly, or towards the eyes. 



The Spectacled Cayman ( Crocadilus Sclerops) grows to a 

 very considerable size. It inhabits South America, and is 

 verv common at Cayenne, and throughout all Guiana. Seba, 

 who has given a tolerably good figure of it, was deceived in 

 announcing the Island of Ceylon as its native country. It 

 seems not improbable that the jacare of Margrave, and the 



