134 CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS. 



confusion of ideas to call a cow a kind of pig tlian to term 

 a crocodile a lizard, since whereas a cow and a pig are 

 mammals belonging to the same section of a single order, 

 lizards and crocodiles represent two totally distinct orders 

 of reptiles. With regurd to the statement that the dif- 

 ference between a crocodile and an alligator is merely one 

 of name, the reader who follows us through this chapter 

 will probably hold a different opinion by the time he 

 reaches the end. 



So far as external appearance goes, most people are 

 aware that crocodiles and alligators are large, long-tailed, 

 low-bodied reptiles, -with flat and frequently broad heads, 

 and their bodies protected by a coat of scales, which vary 

 greatly in size in its different regions. They probably also 

 know that it is the impressions of these scales, or of the 

 bony scutes by which those of the back are underlain, that 

 form the well-known markings on the crocodile-skin now 

 so commonly used for bags and other leather articles. In 

 their short and clawed limbs there are five toes in the 

 front pair, and four in the hinder, those of the latter being 

 connected together for a part of their length by a web. 

 As regards their habits, crocodiles and alligators are typical 

 amphibious creatures, being perfectly at home in the 

 water, but also capable of active progress on land, on which 

 their eggs are laid and the young hatched. The j^osition 

 of their external nostrils at the very tip of the snout 

 enables them to come to the surface for the purjiose of 

 breathing without showing more than their muzzle, or, at 

 most, this ard their somewhat prominent eyes. These 

 external characters will enable us to recognize an alligator 

 or crocodile when we see it, and yet do not show us how 

 these creatures differ so essentially from true lizards as to 

 render it incorrect to sj)eak of them merely as a particular 

 group of lizards. To render this essential distinction 

 apparent we must enter into certain details of their 

 anatomical structure, more especially as regards the skull. 

 Now, in the first place, a crocodile or alligator may be 

 at once distinguished from every true lizard bv the 

 circumstance that its large and pointed teeth are inserted 

 in the jaws in distinct and separate sockets, from which 



