FOSSIL REPTILES. 181 



crocodiles — researches, prosecuted by various naturalists of 

 different countries, and by the Baron himself. These researches 

 occasioned certain modifications in the results of his former 

 labours. 



They proved, in the first instance, that what he had regarded 

 merely as two species were in reality two subdivisions of the 

 genus, susceptible of being themselves divided, by means of 

 secondary characters, into several different species. They also 

 shewed, in the second place, that the two subdivisions are not 

 entirely peculiar to the two continents to which he had respec- 

 tively attributed them : for the crocodile of St. Domingo, for 

 example, though certainly forming a species apart, does yet 

 much more closely resemble the crocodiles proper, of the Old 

 Continent, than those which are most commonly found in the 

 New, and to which the Baron had restricted the appellation of 

 cayman. From this the possibility was deduced that a reciprocal 

 discovery might be made in the old continent of some species 

 appertaining or approximating to the subdivision of the cay- 

 mans. 



The Baron, in enumerating the names of those naturalists to 

 whom we are indebted for the augmentation of our knowledge 

 on this genus, expressly excepts the editors of Buffon. They 

 have given nothing original. Their figures even are but copies 

 from other figures badly chosen. Daudin alone has given some 

 slight indication of a new species. Neither has Shaw, in that 

 part of his General Zoology which treats of reptiles, done any- 

 thing to elucidate the subject. He admits but two species with 

 short muzzles, namely, the common crocodile and the alligator. 

 To represent the latter, he takes the altered figure of Seba 

 above mentioned, which had been used for Lacepede'sybi«e^^e- 

 queue^ and his two figures of crocodiles are caymans. 



M. Faujas de Saint- Fond wrote especially on this subject in 

 his geological essays and other works. He had numbers of indi- 

 vidual specimens under his inspection, and a full opportunity of 



