FOSSIL REPTILES. 



197 



crested crocodile (crocodilus biporcatus), which is the porosus of 

 Schneider. M. Cuvier had the good fortune to possess speci- 

 mens of this species at all ages, from its issuing from the egg 

 to its attainment of the length of twelve feet. This enabled 

 him not only to distinguish the characters with the utmost cer- 

 tainty, but also furnished him with the most useful knowledge 

 concerning the variations of form which the crocodiles in gene- 

 ral undergo in proportion to age. 



The head diflfers from that of the common crocodile only by 

 two projecting crests or ridges which proceed from the anterior 

 angle of the orbit, and descend in almost a parallel line along 

 the muzzle^ disappearing by degrees. The scales of the back 

 are more numerous than in the preceding species. The first 

 range has four ; the following have six. The eight which come 

 after have each of them eight : then there are three with six, 

 and three with four. The entire number of ranges is seventeen. 

 These scales, instead of being square, and wider than long, are, 

 on the contrary, oval, and longer than wide. In young indivi- 

 duals there are pores to all the dorsal scales, and at the trian- 

 gular intervals left between them. The ventral pores are also 

 very obvious in this species. 



This crocodile is the most common in all those rivers which 

 flow towards the Indian Ocean. It is found in Java. Peron 

 has observed it in Timor and in the Sechelles Islands. It has 

 also been taken in the Ganges, and M. Cuvier received from 

 Calcutta a skeleton seventeen feet in length. 



The next species is the lozenge crocodile (crocodilus rhom- 

 bifer.) The country of this crocodile is unknown, and the Baron 

 had only seen two individuals. 



The chaffron is more gibbous than in the other species, its 

 transverse section representing at least a semicircle. From the 

 anterior angle of each orbit proceeds a blunt rectilinear ridge, 

 which promptly approaches its correspondent one, and forms 

 with it and the internal edges of the two orbits an incomplete 

 bzenge at its posterior angle. The four limbs are clothed in 



