CROCODILE. 
small degree of fermentation, and so increase 
the heat in those hillocks.'* He is of opi- 
nion, that the female carefully watches her 
nest : for he is positive, that the young are not 
left to shift for themselves ; having had fre- 
quent opportunities of seeing tlie female Cro- 
codile lead about her young ones, which whine 
and bark like puppies, just as a hen does her 
brood of chickens. He admits, that few of a 
brood live to their full growth, because the old 
feed on the young as long as they can make 
prey of them. He mentions, however, having 
seen a female, with a long train of young ones 
swimming after her. The eggs are esteemed 
delicious ; and the Egyptians worshipped the 
Ichneumon for destroying them. But no ene- 
my is so fatal to the fecundity of the Crocodile 
as the Gallinazo Vulture ; which watches the 
female, from among the trees, and tears up her 
eggs the instant she retires. The flesh, which 
is eaten by the Indians, is delicately white ; but 
tastes and smells powerfully of musk. Catesby 
says that, in Carolina, Crocodiles lay torpid 
from 0(51:ober to March, in caverns and hol- 
lows; and, at their coming out in the spring, 
make a hideous bellowing noise. Their longe- 
vity, according to Aristotle, equals that cf mun. 
The 
