CHAPTEE XL 



ALLIGATORS AND CROCODILES. 



(Crocodilia.) 



X the Order Crocodilia we have a remarkable group of 

 reptiles, representatives of which occur in various 

 parts of the world. Naturalists divide the living' croc- 

 odiles in three families, and these are known as the 

 G-avials, the true Crocodiles, and the Alligators. In former ages 

 of the earth's history, however, as lias been pointed out by the 

 writers upon the fossil remains of animals, there were not only a 

 great many more different kinds of these reptiles, but they had 

 a far wider range over the surface of the globe, and formed a 

 more important figure in its fauna. 



Restricted as they now are in their present distribution, it is 

 safe to assert that the crocodiles and their near kin are marked 

 as a declining group, and they will eventually be exterminated 

 entirely. Anatomists have clearly shown them to be, by their 

 structure, the highest order of reptiles now in existence, while 

 literature of every description teems with accounts of them, both 

 true and mythical, as far back as the very dawn of history; nor 

 were figures of them by any means forgotten upon the monu- 

 ments of the ancients. 



Alligators are confined to America, and we have a very well 

 known form of them in the United States, that occurs in all suit- 

 able localities throughout the South, being quite abundant in 

 certain places. According to Professor Packard and other 

 writers, we also have in Florida the Florida crocodile, described 

 by Cuvier, the great French naturalist, as Grocodilus acutus. This 

 reptile, which may attain to a length of fourteen feet, is rare 

 upon the peninsula, becoming far more abundant in the West 

 Indies and South America. 



We may state here that the alligator and the crocodile are dis- 

 tinctly different structurally. In two points of external struc- 

 ture, this distinction is very well marked. In the alligator the 

 fourth tooth, known as the canine or prehensile tooth of the 

 lower jaw, fits into a pit in the upper jaw, whereas in the croc- 

 odile, or among the crocodiles, this tooth has, in the upper jaw, 

 only a notch or furrow to accommodate it when the animal's 



