172 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Voi,. V, 



he had seen young L on the latter island. The individuals that frequent these places 

 are, however, extraordinarily timid and rarely leave the water for more than short 

 periods. As a rule they lie in it at the edge. The fishermen do not seem to be much 

 afraid of them. At Satpara we saw men, women and children bathing in a tank 

 within a few yards of a couple of crocodiles which were floating on the surface, the 

 larger being 6 to 8 ft. long. They said that the crocodiles only eat fish. Generally 

 speaking, these animals, though they do not avoid village tanks, seem to be confined 

 in the lake to those parts that are low and have sloping shores and are at the same 

 time remote from human habitations. Possibly they fear the formidable fish-spears 

 carried in the fishing boats. 



Genus Gavialis, Günther. 



1864. Gavialis, Günther, Rept. Brit. Ind., p. 63. 

 1876. Gharialis, Theobald, Cat. Rept. Ind., p. 37. 



The name Gavialis is a latinized form of a misreading of the Hindustani " gharial" , 

 just as the name dugong is a misreading of the Malay duyong; but Theobald' s emen- 

 dation has not been accepted by most recent herpetologists. 



Gavialis gangeticus (Gmelin). 

 We were informed on good authority that this species occurs in the lake in the 

 neighbourhood of Satpara, and on less good authority that one is known to the fisher- 

 men to frequent Kalidai Id, If the information is correct, this must be practi- 

 cally the southern limit of the range of the species and genus, which is not known 

 further down the coast of India than the Mahanaddi river-system. It is found in all 

 the rivers that flow into the head of the Bay of Bengal, including the Koladyne in 

 Arrakan, but not in the Irrawaddy. Like the mud-turtle Trionyx gangeticus and the 

 porpoise Platanista gangetica, it occurs in the Indus as well as in the east coast 

 systems. 



CHELONIA. 



Family CHELONIDAE. 



The two species of this family here recorded from the outer channel of the Chilka 

 Lake are probably mere casual visitors. Very possibly the third Indian species, Thalas- 

 sochelys caretta, also enters the sea-mouth occasionally. We obtained no evidence as 

 to any turtle breeding on the shores of either the outer channel or the main area of 

 the lake, and it is only those of the former that would be at all suitable for the 

 purpose. 



Genus Chelone, Brougniart. 



Chelone imbricata (Linn.) 



A large shell of the Tortoiseshell Turtle was seen on the shore of Barhampur Id. 

 in the outer channel in March, 1914. 



1 An interesting account of the nest of this crocodile has recently been published by W. Schultze 

 in the Philippine Journ. Sei. (D) IX, pp. 313-315, pi. i (1914). 



