FOSSIL REPTILES. 201 



There are only two small shields behind the head, fol- 

 lowed by four transverse ranges, continuous with those of the 

 back. 



This gavial attains to a gigantic size. The Baron received 

 one whose skeleton measured seventeen feet ; and M. de 

 Lacepede observed in the Paris Museum the portion of a jaw, 

 from the size of which he concluded that the individual to 

 which it belonged must have been thirty feet ten inches in 

 length. 



The little Gavial (Crocodilus tenuirostris, Cuv.) has the 

 cranium less long and less wide in proportion to the muzzle 

 than the last noticed species. The length of the cranium, 

 taken from between the anterior edges of the orbits, is com- 

 prised three times and one-third only in the total length. 



The upper table of the cranium behind the orbits forms a 

 square of equal length and breadth. The orbits are more long 

 than broad, and larger in proportion to the head, and separated 

 by a space one-half more narrow than each of them. The 

 foramina of the cranium are more long than wide, and very 

 much narrowed in the bottom. The number of teeth appears 

 to be the same as in the preceding. 



The length of the beak is to that of the body as one to 

 seven ; and, therefore, is a little longer than in the last. 



The nape is armed behind the cranium with two pairs of 

 oval escutcheons, then with four transverse ranges. The first 

 of these has two large scales ; the two following, two large and 

 two small ; the fourth, two large ones, of \vhich the bands of 

 the back are a continuation. They all have four large squared 

 scales, and two very narrow ones on the side. All these scales 

 have equal but not very elevated ridges. The number of 

 dorsal bands is eighteen. The crests of the tail are double as 

 far as the nineteenth band. 



If this little gavial be anything but a young one of the 

 great, of which the Baron seems doubtful, it is certain that it 

 also inhabits the waters of the Ganges, for M. Cuvier received 



