THE HABITS OF MALAY REPTILES, 189 
CROCODILES. 
Crocodiles. The common crocodile is Crocodilus porosus. Cantor 
mentions C. palustris, the Mugger of India, as occurring in 
Penang, but as being less common than the other kind. Lieut, 
Flower has seen a young specimen from Singapore in the British 
Museum and Mr. Butler has got one in Selangor. This croco- 
dile is distinguished by its shorter and broader snout, and by 
having five teeth in its premaxilla, and not four only as the 
common kind has. It seems also on the whole to be a smaller 
animal. 
The common crocodile varies in colour, being sometimes 
black and yellow, at others entirely black. The Malays consider 
the yellow variety as beirg the most dangerous. This species is 
strictly speaking a tidal river or marine animal. It seldom goes 
far up rivers beyond tidal waters, and it sometimes goes very 
far out to sea. I saw the skull of one at Cocos Island, which 
had turned up there some months before my visit, and which 
must have swam at least 200 miles in the sea ere reaching the 
islands. They sometimes leave the water and go for some dis- 
tance inland, apparently trying to get across from one river to 
another. 1 saw one which had just been killed in a coffee estate 
near the caves at Kwala Lnmpur, where it had been found 
wandering about among the coffee, at no great distance from 
the rive1, however. Of the ferocity and cunning of this, our most 
dangerous wild beast, there is no need to write, it is too well 
known; but [ will mention one incident concerning it. Some 
years ago, a Malay forest-cuard was in a mangrove swamp at 
low tide, the water where he stood being only a foot deep, when 
a crocodile suddenly rose out of the mud on its hind lees and bit 
him on the elbow, The man tore his arm out of its mouth, and 
it rushed off. The Malays’ theory on the subject was that the 
man was standing on or close to the animal’s nest, Lut it seems 
curious that the crocodile should be buried in the mud in such a 
manner, and thatit should spring at his arm and not bite him 
on the leg, which would be the nearest part to him. In captiv- 
ity the crocodile is rather a stupid animal, but a young one 
kept in the Gardens has learnt to come out of the water for a 
piece of meat when whistled to. 
