FOSSIL REPTILES. 



193 



give, says M. Cuvier, the crocodile of Egypt the appearance 

 of having the back regularly paved with squares, or diamonds 

 with four angles. 



The scales of the back and nape, especially those of the 

 two longitudinal middle lines, are wider than they are long. 

 Those of the belly have a pore more or less marked towards 

 their lower edge. The colour of the upper part is a bronzed 

 green, more or less clear, marbled with brown ; that of the 

 lower a yellowish green. 



The Nilotic species also inhabits Senegal. It is probable 

 also that it is found in the Zaire, in the loliba, and other 

 rivers of Africa. It certainly exists in Madagascar, as appears 

 from a specimen sent to France by M. Havet. 



Among the crocodiles referable to this species, there are 

 some which have the head rather more elongated in proportion 

 to its breadth, and a little flatter, or rather less unequal, at its 

 surface. Beside the differences in the form of the head, 

 these individuals exhibit some in the shades of their colours. 

 These differences, joined to the testimony of the fishermen of 

 the Thebais, would seem to authorize the distinction admitted 

 by M. Geoffroi, if not of another species, at least of a par- 

 ticular race of the crocodile inhabiting the same country. M. 

 Geoffroi has given the name of Suchus to this variety, a name 

 which we find in Strabo. 



It was the opinion of Jablonsky and Larcher, that the 

 Suchus, or Souchis, was a particular species of the crocodile, 

 and that which, in preference to the other, the Egyptians used 

 to rear in their temples. 



This opinion, however, is liable to great controversy. It 

 appears certain that neither Herodotus, nor Aristotle, nor 

 Diodorus, nor Pliny, nor ^lian, had any idea of two species 

 of the crocodile in Egypt. Herodotus, after telling us that the 

 inhabitants of Elephantina used to eat crocodiles, informs us 

 they are named Champses, and this he states in a general way, 



O 



