180 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



allowed, by universal consent, to constitute, if no higher a sub- 

 division, at least a species perfectly distinct from all others. 



There remained all those animals known under the names of 

 crocodile, and o^ cayman, or alligator, and so frequently taken 

 one for the other. These animals are very numerous in the 

 collections of natural history in France, in consequence of the 

 relations of that country with Egypt, Senegal, and Guyana, 

 which, with the East Indies, are the climates where crocodiles 

 chiefly abound. 



The Baron, after an examination of about sixty individuals 

 of both sexes, from the length of tvv^elve or fifteen feet down to 

 the very young which had but broken the shell, seemed to think 

 that they might all be reduced to two species, which he thus 

 defined : — 



1. Crocodile, Oblong muzzle ; upper jaw notched on each 

 side, to let the fourth lower tooth pass ; hinder feet entirely 

 pal mated. 



2. Cayman. Obtuse muzzle ; upper jaw receiving the 

 fourth lower tooth in a particular hollow which conceals it ; 

 hind feet semi-palmate. 



All the individuals of the first form, whose origin the Baron 

 could then learn with certainty, came from the Nile, Senegal, 

 the Cape, or the East Indies. All of the second from America, 

 either from Cayenne or elsewhere. 



The Baron thus at first established two very distinct species 

 of crocodile, without reckoning the gavials with the long muz- 

 zle ; and he deemed himself justified in assigning the Old Con- 

 tinent as the country of the one, and the New as that of the 

 other. Moreover, at the time of which we speak, he gave an 

 indication of a third species, that of North America, of which 

 he then possessed but a single individual, and the distinction 

 has been since completely confirmed. 



Such were the results of the earliest labours of M. Cuvier 



published in the year 1801. But during the ten subsquent 



years very important researches took place on the subject of the 



