16 CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS 



and do so with genuine relish. Crocodiles which I skinned 

 and left beside a pool were promptly eaten by their relatives, 

 who in their turn were also killed, dissected and eaten. 



Man-Eating Crocodiles. — Out of the nineteen species 

 of crocodiles and alligators (eight of which I have observed in 

 their haunts), so far as I can learn only three are dangerous 

 to man. The most dangerous man-eater is the salt-water 

 crocodile of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and surrounding re- 

 gions. This reptile attains a size of 16 feet, and in the ter- 

 ritory of Sarawak, Borneo, it devours so many people that the 

 Government has for years paid a cash reward for its destruc- 

 tion. Its method is to take advantage of the murky waters 

 of the rivers, swim up to a village bathing-place, seize any 

 man or woman found bathing in the shallow water, or filling 

 a water-jar, and back off into deep water. 



The West African crocodiles,^ of Angola and other por- 

 tions of West Africa, are the boldest of all crocodilians, some- 

 times attacking people who are in canoes, and dragging a vic- 

 tim from a boat. (William Harvey Brown.) 



The gavial and mugger of India are harmless to man, and 

 so are the American crocodiles, and the alligator. I have 

 gone swimming in the home waters of both the gavial and alli- 

 gator — the two extremes in jaw development — and therefore 

 feel sure that both are harmless. 



Nesting Habits. — All the crocodilians reproduce by lay- 

 ing from thirty to sixty oblong, perfectly white eggs, in layers, 

 in a low mound of muck, or vegetable mould, or sand. The 

 female lies in wait to defend her eggs while they hatch through 



^This is the Nile crocodile, which is widely distributed throughout Africa. 



