CROCODILES. 355 



we are unable to separate tlie remaina of one from those 

 of the other. A great quantity have been found — teeth, osse- 

 ous plates, ribs, vertebrae, &c.; the latter having the concavo- 

 convex body, and the sacral vertebrae, with their transverse 

 processes compressed and cylindrical, agree in every respect 

 with the existing animal. 



NoETHEEN DoAB : Octoher 1, 1835. 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR ON CROCODILES. 

 I. — Note by Editor. 



Subsequent investigations in the British Museum and elsewhere 

 caused doubt in Dr. Falconer's mind as to the correctness of the 

 identifications by Capt. Cautley in the above memoir. This is indicated 

 by the following passage from a letter dated London, Jan. 5th, 1844, 

 addressed to Capt. Cautley in India : — 



' Our Crocodile of the Upper Provinces is not the C. hiporcatus of 

 Cuvier — of that I am certain. There appear to be three existing 

 Indian species of Crocodile, as distinct from Gavial, viz. : C. hipor- 

 catus^ with a long sharp head ; C. palustris, with a shorter and broader 

 head ; and C. homhifrons, undescribed, very short and blunt. Of these, 

 the head figured by you and given with dimensions in the " Asiatic 

 Researches," appears to me to be C. homhifrons, undescribed, but so 

 named in the British Museum.' 



The following extracts, however, from letters also addressed to Capt. 

 Cautley, show that Dr. P. had no doubt as to the identity of the fossil 

 Avith the existing Crocodile and Gharial : — 



Aug. 5th, 1843. ' He (Mr. L.) doubted my confident assertion that 

 ciu* fossil Gavial was identical with the existing species.' 



Dec. 6th, 1843. ' I gave C. a flat contradiction on his saying that 

 existing species of Crocodile had been found before, with extinct genera 

 of animals. This in reference to our assertion of the fossil Crocodiles 

 being recent species.' 



Four species of Crocodile among the Sewalik fossils were afterwards 

 determined by Dr. Falconer in the British Museum, viz. : Crocodilus 

 homhifrons ; Croc. (^Leptorhynclms) Gangeticus ; Croc. {Leptorhi/nchus) 

 Leptodus ; and Croc. {Leptorhynchus) crassidens. The two first are 

 identical with existing species. The last was described, in 1837, as 

 ' an immense species, far exceeding existing ones, and forming a passage 

 from the Gavials into the true Crocodiles. It has the cylindrical muzzle 

 and synostorized lower jaw of the former, with the blunt, thick teeth 

 of the latter.' See antea, page 297. 



Outline figures of these species, found among Dr. Falconer's papers, 

 have been identified with the specimens in the British Museum ; and 

 from these specimens the illustrations in Plates XXVIII. and XXIX. 

 have been drawn by Mr. Dinkel. — [Ed.] 



A A 2 



