186 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



tions at their edges. The intervals are at most but one half 

 filled by a short membrane. The foramina of the cranium, in 

 such species as have any, are very small : one species is 

 entirely destitute of them. 



The second sub-genus is that of the crocodiles properly 

 so called. 



The name of Crocodile was given originally to the Nilotic 

 species, according to Herodotus by the lonians, because, says 

 he, it resembled the crocodiles which, among themselves, (the 

 lonians), inhabit hedges. These were probably the lizard, 

 named Stellion by Linnaeus, and which is still called in modern 

 Greek, by a slight change, koslordylos. In its primitive accep- 

 tation KpoKohiKos signified " that which fears the bank or 

 shoreJ^ The true crocodile of the Nile was formerly, accord- 

 ing to the historian above cited, named Chamses by the ancient 

 Egyptians, and at the present day, in Egypt, is called temsach, 

 according to all travellers. 



In the individuals of this sub-genus the head is oblong, the 

 length is double, and sometimes more than double the breadth. 

 The length of the cranium is less than one-fourth of the total 

 length of the head. The teeth are unequal. There are fifteen 

 on each side below, and nineteen above. The first teeth of 

 the lower jaw pierce the upper at a certain age ; they pass 

 into notches, and are not lodged in hollows of the upper jaw. 

 The hind feet have at their external edge an indented crest 

 or caruncle : the intervals of the toes, at least of the external 

 ones, are entirely palmated. In the cranium, behind the 

 eyes, are two oval foramina, which may be observed through 

 the skin, even in dried individuals. 



The Gavials constitute the third sub-genus. The muzzle 

 is narrow, cylindrical, extremely elongated, and a little swelled 

 out at the end. The length of the cranium is scarcely one- 

 fifth of the entire length of the head. The teeth are nearly 

 equal — twenty-five to twenty-seven on each side below ; twenty- 

 seven to twenty-eight above. The first two and fourth two of 



