A tRIP TO TRINIDAD. 



361 



tened. These cocodrilos of Batabano, seemed to us, 

 specifically the same with the crocodilus acutus^ 

 although it is true that what we were told of its 

 habits, does not accord with what we ourselves had 

 observed on the Orinoco ; but the carnivorous 

 saurian s of like species, and in the same river, are 

 mild and timid, or ferocious and fearless, according 

 to the nature of the locality. 



The animal called cayman at Batabano, died on 

 the way to Havana, and those in charge had not the 

 foresight to bring the body to us, so that we were 

 not able to compare the two species. Are there, 

 perhaps, on the south side of Cuba true caymans, 

 with the rounded snout, and the fourth under tooth 

 entering the upper jaw; and another species (alli- 

 gators), like those of Florida? In view of the 

 assertions of the colonists relative to the more 

 pointed head of the cocodrilo of Batabano, this is 

 almost certain. If this is the case, the people of the 

 island have made, by a happy instinct, a distinction 

 between the cocodrilo and the cayman, with all the 

 exactitude now used by zoologists in separating 

 families that belong to the same genera, and bear 

 the same name. 



I do not doubt that the sharp-snouted cocodrilo, 

 and the alligator or flat-nosed cayman do not live 

 together, but in distinct bands, on the marshy shores 



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