148 THE LIVING ANIMALS 
OF THE WORLD 
i ee 
Photo by HW’. P. Dando, F.Z.S. 
YOUNG BROAD-SNOUTED CROCODILE 
Ai native of West Africa, remarkable for the extreme shortness and great breadth of its nozzle 
by specially developed bones of the palate, that they have 
and the feet are more or 
less webbed. The most strik- 
ing of its structural adapta- 
tions is, however, associated 
with the formation of the 
creature’s skull. The manner 
in which a crocodile or alli- 
gator contrives to breathe orto 
save itself from asphyxiation, 
when opening and _ shutting 
its mouth under water, as 
it may often be observed to 
do in the Regent's Park 
Menagerie, is a common 
source of wonderment to the 
onlooker. This seemingly 
difficult feat is compassed by 
virtue of the posterior nos- 
trils, or breathing-passages, 
being set so far back in the 
skull, and being so completely 
cut off from the mouth-cavity 
no intercommunication with 
the mouth. It is this mechanism which enables a crocodile to seize and hold an animal 
underneath the water between its open jaws until it is drowned. Special valves at the 
back of the mouth prevent any water running down the creature’s throat, while it is able 
itself to breathe unrestrainedly by allowing just the tip of its elongated snout, with the anterior 
nostril-apertures, to remain above the water's surface. 
In many species a conspicuous knob- 
like bony excrescence is developed at the extremity of the snout, by which the nostril-openings 
are raised turret-wise above the surface of the water. 
above the level of the 
creature’s head, the crocodile 
is able to approach its floating 
or bank-side prey practically 
unperceived, its huge body, 
limbs, and even the head, 
with the exception of the 
nose and eyes, being totally 
submerged. 
Although capable of 
moving with great activity 
in the water, crocodiles and 
their allies are usually ac- 
counted sluggish and slow 
movers on the land. Seen 
basking in the sun, as is 
their wont, by the hour 
together on some sand-bank, 
or creeping lazily thereon 
among their fellows, such a 
conclusion is natural. The 
celerity, however, with which 
Norman B. Smit 
A man-eating individual, 
The eyes also being usually elevated 
A DEAD CROCODILE 
This particular animal has just been shot. The natives in the 
background give a good idea of its size — little less than 20 feet long 
