THE CROCODILE 265 



from the missing sections by this cause. Of 

 course the crocodile no douht is an extensive 

 fish-eater on those many occasions when he can 

 get nothing else — indeed there are said, in portions 

 of British East Africa, to be certain small lakes 

 (Lake Baringo for example) containing these 

 reptiles where it is perfectly safe to bathe as, 

 owing to their invariable habit of devouring 

 fish, they have never been known to take 

 mammals of any description. Personally I 

 must confess that I should not care, in the 

 light of my knowledge of these creatures, to 

 take the risk. But in crocodile-infested waters 

 they may at times be watched in pursuit of the 

 fish when, usually at early morning or late after- 

 noon, these seek the landward shallows. Often, 

 seated upon the river banks of several East 

 African streams, at a respectful distance from the 

 edge of the water be it understood, I have seen 

 the crocodiles pursuing the teeming river fish, 

 into the midst of which they dash with great 

 violence, so much so that it is no unusual 

 occurrence for half a dozen or more of the 

 affrighted creatures to leap clear of the water 

 upon the sandy bank, there to fall an easy prey 

 to the ever - present fishing eagles or to the 

 omnivorous native. 



Possibly to the fact that these reptiles pursue 

 the shoals into shallow water about the sunset 

 hour may be due also the circumstance that just 

 before and after nightfall is regarded as the time 

 at which their attack is most to be feared. Then, 

 as at early dawn, it is literally unsafe to stand 



