THE 
REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
R E P T I L I A.' 
EMYDOSAUEIA. 
CEOCODILIDtE. 
CROCODILUS. 
Crocodilus, part., Lain - . Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 53. 
The crocodile of the Nile ' has formed the subject of elaborate memoirs by E. Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire 2 and Cuvier 3 ; but as the former authority believed in the existence of five 
species of crocodiles in the Nile, it is necessary to examine the evidence he adduced in 
support of this view. 
1 The Nile crocodile was described, so long ago as 1699, by Oligerus Jacobasus, as Crocodilus nilotieus (vide 
Mus. Reg. Hfn. 1699, pars prima, p. 8, tab. viii. fig. vi.). Seba (Thes. i., 1734) devoted three plates to 
crocodiles, and on plate 105 figured two crocodiles, viz. figs. 3 & 4. The first of these he named Crocodilus 
aquaticus, eeilonicus ; mas. ; and the second Crocodilus ceilonicus, supcrius ; fcemina. Laurenti (Syn. Rept. 
1768, p. 53) quotes these two figures as illustrating a species which he called Crocodylus nilotieus, and closes 
his description of it with the words "Habitat in India orientali, et iEgypto." The characters assigned by 
Laurenti to this crocodile are so general as to be equally applicable to C. paluslris and 0. porosus, doubtless 
for the cogent reason that he regarded the crocodiles of Ceylon and of the Nile as specifically identical. I 
propose to follow Mr. Boulenger, whose labours mark an epoch in the history of herpetology, and to retain 
C. nilotieus for the crocodile of the Nile, as it has priority to Cuvier's term C. vulgaris and is in every way 
more definite and appropriate. 
2 Ann. Mus. ii. 1803, p. 37, pi. xxxvii. fig. 2 ; id. op. x. 1807, p. 82, pi. iii. figs. 1-4 ; Descr. de l'Egypte, 
Hist. Nat. i. (? 1827) p. 185, pi. ii. 
3 Ann. Mus. x. 1807, p. 40, pi. i. figs. 5 & 12, pi. ii. fig. 7; Oss. Ross. iv. 1812, pt. v. p. 33. 
B 
