Chap. 37.] THE CEOCODII/E. 287 



CHAP. 36. — THE ICHNETJMON. 



This hostility is the especial glory of this animal, which is 

 also produced in Egypt. It plunges itself repeatedly into the 

 mud, and then dries itself in the sun : as soon as, by these 

 means, it has armed itself with a sufficient number of coatings, 

 it proceeds to the combat. Eaising its tail, and turning its 

 back to the serpent, it receives its stings, which are inflicted to 

 no purpose, until at last, turning its head sideways, and view- 

 ing its enemy, it seizes it by the throat. Not content, how- 

 ever, with this victory, it conquers another creature also, which 

 is no less dangerous. 



CHAP. 37. (25.) THE CKOCODILB. 



The Nile produces the crocodile also," a destructive quad- 

 ruped, and equally dangerous on land and in the water. This 

 is the only land animal that does not enjoy the use of its 

 tongue,** and the only one that has the upper jaw moveable, 

 and is capable of biting with it ; and terrible is its bite, for the 

 rows of its teeth fit into each other, like those of a comb.*' Its 

 length mostly exceeds eighteen cubits. It produces eggs about 

 the size of those of the goose, and, by a kind of instinctive 

 foresight, always -deposits them beyond the limit to which 

 the river Nile rises, when at its greatest height.'" There is 

 no animal that arrives at so great a bulk as this, from so small 

 a beginning." It is armed also with claws, and has a skin, 



^ Many of the ancients have described the crocodile ; of these, the most 

 important, for the correctness of the description, are Herodotus, B. ji, c. 

 68 ; Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 10, et alibi ; and Diodorus Sicnlus, 

 B. i.— B. 



'* The tongue of the crocodile is flat, and, as afterwards stated, B. xi. 

 c. 65, adheres to the lower jaw, so as to be incapable of motion. — B. 



8' This account was first given by Herodotus, ubi mpra ; and, from the 

 form of the head and the neighbouring parts, depicts what would naturally 

 occur to the observer ; but it is not correct. The actual state of the parts, 

 and their connection with each other, as Cuvier informs us, were first 

 satisfactorily explained by Geoffroi Saint Hilaire. — B. 



*> ^lian, Anim. Nat. B. v. c. 32, observes, that this is the case with 

 the tortoise, and similar animals. — B. 



'' Cuvier says, that when it leaves the eg^, the young animal is only 

 six inches long, and that it ultimately attains a size of from thirty to 

 forty feet. — B. 



