CKOCODILTJS NILOTICUS. 13 
140 millim. long, the head being a little more than -g- of the entire length, whereas in 
the adult it is y. The young at once make for the water, where many of them fall a 
prey to Varanus niloticus, which also, along with Herpestes ichneumon, is said to 
destroy many of the eggs. Another reptile, Trionyx triunguis, has likewise been 
credited with this habit. 
The ichneumon belongs to a genus the members of which have a decided partiality 
for eggs, but as it frequents, as a rule, situations affording it the cover of reeds and 
long grass — that is, localities in which crocodiles would not deposit their eggs — its 
powers of destruction have been probably exaggerated ; but the belief in them is an 
old story, old as the days of Herodotus. Diodorus Siculus 1 says that during his day 
an infinite multitude of crocodiles existed in the Nile and the neighbouring pools, and 
that being in such numbers there would have been no sailing on the Nile but for the 
ichneumon. Pococke 2 , on the other hand, says that he could get no account in Upper 
Egypt of the ichneumon destroying the eggs. There can be no doubt, however, that 
if in its wanderings in quest of food it came across the eggs of the crocodile, it 
would treat them just as it does the eggs of a domestic fowl, but that it specially 
searches for them seems most improbable. The fact that it does occasionally eat 
the eggs of that formidable monster, the crocodile, was sufficient to so raise it in the 
estimation of the ancient Egyptians that it became a sacred animal. The cult of 
the ichneumon arose in the nome of Heracleopolis 3 in Middle Egypt. 
The lizard, Varanus niloticus, Hasselq. & Linn., which has a wide distribution over 
the Nile, is doubtless much more destructive to the eggs than the ichneumon, and as it 
is aquatic as well as terrestrial in its habits, it also wages war against the young 
of the crocodile, pursuing it even into the ranks of the adults 4 . It thus exercises a 
potent influence in preventing the undue increase of the species. The other species of 
the same genus, Varanus griseus, Daud., probably also consumes many of the eggs of 
the crocodile deposited on the desert banks of the river. The dexterity with which 
this lizard seizes and swallows a domestic fowl's egg, without breaking it by its sharp 
teeth, is a most interesting sight. 
During the day, the crocodile generally frequents the sand islands in mid-stream, to 
which it is more partial than to the river bank. A. E. Brehm 5 describes how he 
observed through his field-glasses some crocodiles, that had been in undisputed posses- 
sion of a sand-island for half a century, come out of the water at midday and crawl 
upon the island, and how they looked about to ascertain if they were safe, and, having 
satisfied themselves that they were so, flopped down on the sand, relaxed their legs, 
opened their mouths, and composed themselves to sleep. Not only is it very local in 
1 Hist. Bk. i. c. 6 and i. c. 3. 2 Op. tit. vol. i. p. 203. 
3 Strabo, op. tit. p. 412 ; iElian, Nat. Anim. x. 47. 
* Geofiroy, Descr. de l'Egypte, 8to ed., Hist. Nat. vi. 1829, p. 411 ; Klunzinger (C. B.), Upper Egypt, 
1878, p. 150. « Journ. f. Ornith. 1856, p. 491. 
