1853.] Catalogue of Reptiles inhabiting the Peninsula of India. 465 



Vertebral plates larger than broad, marked with yellow in an olive- 

 brown ground. 



This Turtle is occasionally caught by the fishermen both on the 

 East and "West Coasts of India. 



Chelonia olivacea, Eschscholtz — Cant. 1. c. p. 619. 



Very common in the Bay of Bengal, where I have seen many 

 captured by ship lascars swimming out during a calm. Length of 

 carapax average about 2 feet.* 



Chelonia imbeicata (L.) V. Cantor, 1. c. p. 619. 



I have quite recently procured this Turtle at Tellicherry on the 

 Malabar Coast. f 



CKOCODILID^E,— Bon. 



G-en. Ceocodilus — V. Cant. 1. c. p. 621. 



Ceocodiltjs palusteis, Lesson — V. Cant. 1. c. p. 621. 



This Crocodile, pronounced by some erpetologists only a variety 

 of the Crocodile of the Nile, and so considered by Cantor, is very 

 common in all the rivers and back-waters of Malabar and the "West 

 of India, very rarely seen out at sea. I have not seen it from the 

 East Coast. It does not attain the dimensions of the next species, 

 and is considered very harmless by the natives. 



Ceocodilus poeosus — Schn. Cantor, 1. c. p. 622. 



This, the larger and fiercer of our two Crocodiles, is found in 

 various localities both on the East and "West coasts, and is the 

 species so abundant in the fort ditch at Vellore. It is of very rapid 

 growth. An egg brought from Vellore to Walter Elliot, Esq., was 

 hatched in the Government house compound, and in eight years had 

 increased to the length of 8 or 9 feet, becoming so powerful as to 

 destroy a full grown buck Antelope which had come to drink water 

 at the tank where it usually resorted to. 



I may mention, here, that both of these species of Crocodile are 

 almost universally called Alligators by the English in India ; erro- 

 neously so, of course, as no Alligators have as yet been found in the 

 old world. 



* Abundant at the mouth of the Hughly. — Cur. As. Soc. 



f In the Society's museum is a small specimen, procured in one of the Sunder- 

 bund rivers. — Cur. As. Soc. 



3 n 2 



