YOUNG CROCODILIANS IN CAPTIVITY. 177 



long stick or forceps. This is satisfactory, as it avoids 

 leaving pieces to foul in the water, and, in addition, 

 insures the fact of each specimen getting its proper allow- 

 ance. Their diet ranges from chopped meat, small fish, 

 sliced fish as procured from the fishmonger, frogs, worms, 

 meal worms, and even cockroaches are relished. Sortie 

 specimens devour frogs readily; others mouth them, and 

 are deterred from making a meal by the acrid secretion of 

 the amphibian. 



As an exclusively meat diet makes their jaws soft, 

 they will require fish once or twice a week at least. 



Food is snapped sideways, and is turned in the mouth 

 by a series of jerks, until the longest axis lies in the 

 length of the mouth. It is then gulped down, swallowing 

 being aided by alternate flexion and extension of the neck. 

 Fish, when taken whole, are turned and swallowed head 

 first. • 



Young crocodilians spend their day climbing and 

 crawling about the tank, but will rest for long periods 

 almost motionless, sometimes with their eyes tightly 

 shut. Crocodiles have a habit of keeping their mouths 

 open in the water. Caimans and alligators prefer sleeping 

 extended full length under water, on the bottom ; croco- 

 diles, as a rule, remaining with their backs, eyes, nose, 

 and crest of tail showing over the water. As their 

 existence is normally spent in an amphibious condition, 

 divided between land and water, it is necessary to 

 reproduce conditions in captivity similar to those found in 

 nature. 



A galvanised iron tank, two and a half feet by 

 eighteen inches wide and four inches deep, is most suit- 

 able. It should have a stopcock or screw cap to allow for 

 emptying. On this tank should fit a cage of wire, the 

 arrangement of the latter being vertical. The separate 



