FOSSIL REPTILES. 199 



orbits, is a rounded convexity, more or less sensible. The 

 upper face of the muzzle presents no projecting lines. The 

 edges of the jaws are still more sensibly festooned than in the 

 Egyptian species, taking individuals of the same age. 



The plates of the nape are nearly the same as in the croco- 

 dile of the Nile, but those of the back, and this is a distinctive 

 character, properly form but four longitudinal lines of crests 

 (as in the preceding), the middle ones of which are more 

 raised, and the external very projecting. These are placed 

 more irregularly, and some of them scattered along the external 

 side. This armour of the back does not resemble in number of 

 pieces, nor in equality, that of the Egyptian crocodile. The 

 middle pieces are wider in proportion. There are but fifteen 

 or sixteen transverse ranges as far as the origin of the tail. In 

 the tail are seventeen or eighteen ranges before the union of 

 the two crests, and seventeen after. The middle ridges cease 

 at the eighteenth or nineteenth range. 



The feet do not differ from those of the common crocodile. 

 The under scales are each provided with a pore. The head is 

 to the length of the body as one to seven and four-tenths. The 

 upper part of the body is of a deep green, spotted and marbled 

 with black ; the under of a paler green. 



The males have all the proportions of the head a little shorter 

 than the females. 



Another species of living crocodile, with the nape of the 

 neck armed (cuirass^e) has been marked by M. Cuvier, who 

 names it crocodilus cataphradus. The specimen was seen by 

 the Baron in this metropolis, in the museum of the College of 

 Surgeons. The muzzle is still more long and narrow than in 

 the crocodile of St. Domingo. It has not the peculiar con- 

 vexity on the chaffron belonging to this last species, nor any 

 other remarkable mark. 



There are seventeen teeth on each side in the upper, and 

 fifteen in the lower jaw. The foramina of the cranium may be 

 seen through the skin, as in the crocodiles. But what charac- 



