356 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



11. — Memoranda on the Belfast Crocodiles. Prom Dr. 

 Note-book, May 22, 1845. 



Falconer's 



Made a comparison with Thompson of the Belfast specimen of the 

 long-muzzled Crocodile head, procured by Dr. McCormac from the river 

 Sierra Leone. This specimen certainly belongs to the Crocodilus 

 cataphractus of Cuyier. It corresponds exactly with the description 

 of the Crocodilus cataphractus given by Dumeril and Bibron, in the 

 number of teeth, form of the head, muzzle, &c. Compared it with the 

 figiu-es of Crocodilus Schlegelii given in Mliller's Atlas. It comes 

 pretty near this, but is certainly different, having fewer teeth in both 

 jaws, and the commissure of the lower jaw being much shorter in 

 proportion than in the C. Schlegelii. It is more of a Crocodile than the 

 C. Schlegelii which comes nearer the Gavial. The nasal bones in both 

 join with the intermaxillaries, but in the C. Schlegelii the slips of the 

 intermaxillaries rim higher up between the maxillaries : and the 

 lateral outline in C. Schlegelii is more cylindrical, being strongly 

 iindulated in C. catajjliractus. The Crocodilus cataphractus is evidently 

 identical with the Mecistops Bennettii of Gray. The Belfast specimen 

 corresponds very closely in size with the stuffed specimen in the British 

 Museum. The head is about 17 inches long ; the extreme breadth at 

 the condyle?, 7 inches; do. behind the orbits, 4| inches ; do. in line 

 with anterior border of do., 3^ inches ; do. at seventeenth or last tooth, 



3|^ inches. 



This last tooth extends to Avithin ^ inch of the orbit. 



The muzzle contracts between the eleventh and twelfth teeth to If 

 inch ; it then expands to 2 inches opposite the ninth teeth, Avhich are 

 the largest in the head. From the ninth it goes on contracting to the 

 space between the fourth and fifth (this interval being | inch) where it 

 gets contracted to 1 inch. At the extremity of the muzzle, between 

 the second and third, it expands to IJ inch. 

 Its detailed dimensions are as follows : — 



the extrem: 



ty of the 



1 . Length from the tip of the muzzle to the occipital ridge 



2. Length from ditto to maxillary condyle 



3. Extreme width of cranium at condyles 



4. Interval between the orbits 

 6. Length from the occipital ridge to 



nasals ..... 



6. Length from tip of muzzle to ditto 



7. Length of orbit .... 



8. Width of ditto .... 



9. Length of crotaphite foramen 



10. Width of ditto .... 



1 1 . Width of muzzle at the tip of nasals 



12. Ditto at 9th tooth 



13. Ditto of contraction behind 4th tooth 



14. Width of dilatation of muzzle 



15. Length of nasal opening 



16. Width of ditto . . . _ . 



17. Number of teeth in the upper jaw, 17 



18. Largest teeth in upper jaw, 3rd and 9th. 



19. Length of intermasillai-y bone at the palate 



20. Length of maxillary ditto ..... 



21. Number of teeth in lower jaw, 15. 



22. Largest teeth in lower jaw, 1st, 4th, 10th, and 11th 



Inches 

 16-5 

 17- 



7- 



0-75 



6- 



9- 



1-88 



1-37 



M2 



0-88 



2-75 



2- 



M2 



1-88 



0-88 



0-75 



3- 

 6-25 



