THE NILE CROCODILE 



and dragging down women and men who come to draw water, and gripping by the 

 nose cattle and other animals which come to drink. A beast thus seized has little 

 chance of escape, no matter what may be its size, as it is taken at a disadvan- 

 tage and rendered comparatively helpless ; but there is a well-authenticated story 

 of a Nile crocodile seizing a rhinoceros by one of the hind-legs just as it was about 

 to leave the river, and eventually dragging the enormous beast, despite its frantic 

 efforts, backwards into deep water, where it was drowned. 



The prey is, indeed, always killed by drowning, after which the carcase is 

 dragged ashore and concealed among reeds or other covert, where it is left until 

 decomposition has set in before being devoured. A large proportion of the food of 

 the Nile crocodile is stated, however, to consist of fish ; and snails, water-fowl, and 

 carrion are also devoured by these ravenous reptiles. When in repose, crocodiles 

 lie like logs in the water, or on the neighbouring sand and mud banks, but the 

 slightest sound awakens them to activity. 



Hearing seems indeed to be the sense most strongly developed in crocodiles ; 

 and it is upon this that they depend in ascertaining the presence of prey. Smell, 

 touch, and taste appear to be but poorly developed ; and the tongue is affixed to the 

 lower surface of the mouth throughout its entire length. Crocodiles are furnished 

 with glands secreting a musky substance, much esteemed by the Sudanis for 

 anointing their hair and bodies, and thus producing what is to them, no doubt, 

 an agreeable odour. 



All crocodiles lay hard-shelled, oval eggs, about the size of those of a goose. 

 These are deposited by the female, to the number of from about twenty to ninety, 

 a yard or so deep in the sand of the river-bank, where they are carefully covered 

 up by means of her tail, and then left to mature by the action of the sun's rays. 

 The mother appears, however, to keep watch in the neighbourhood of the nest, and 

 when the eggs are ready to hatch, their occupants utter a peculiar sound which 

 attracts the parent to their assistance. 



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