200 CLASS llEPTILIA. 



in layers or ranges. The place being recognised, the inha- 

 bitants seek out their eggs to pierce them with an iron-pointed 

 spear. In the flat island of Marajo, or Johannes, at the 

 mouth of the Amazons, these reptiles remain in summer in 

 the marshes, and when these are dried, the little water which 

 remains is so filled with them that the fluid ceases to be 

 visible, and it seems probable that then the larger devour 

 the smaller. They cannot re-ascend the river because the 

 island is surrounded with salt water. According to Delaborde, 

 they remain in Guiana, sometimes almost entirely dry, and 

 it is at such times that they are considered as most dangerous. 



The Cayman with osseous eyelids ( Palpehrosus ) cer- 

 tainly inhabits Cayenne, and is a very distinct species. But 

 little is known of its habits, and the specimens are rare. 

 The interval between its two hinder toes is less palmated, 

 which, according to M. Cuvier, would render it more of a 

 terrestrial animal than the preceding. 



The sub-family of the (ja vials have been observed only 

 in the hottest countries of the ancient world. The first 

 author who has spoken of these animals, was our country- 

 man Edwards, who described an individual of them in 1756, 

 in the forty-ninth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 

 which he announced as having come from the coast of 

 Africa. In 1765, another was described, and Merck has 

 noticed a third in 1785. But all these individuals were 

 small, and the descriptions of them too brief to be of much 

 utility. A very full and exact description, however, was 

 subsequently published by the Count de Lacepede, of an 

 individual of twelve feet in length, with all the dimensions 

 and a figure. This naturalist was the first who gave to the 

 species the Indian name of Gavial. 



As yet we know but of two species of this subgenus, if 

 indeed there be so many. The first is the Great Gavial (C. 

 Longirostris). This gavial inhabits the Ganges, and pro- 



