368 
VERTEBEATA 
CROCODILE AND TIGER. 
has been said of the stratagems employed "by the crocodile to seize its prey : that it lies like a 
log on the banks of riv^ers, or floats inactive on the surface, and then springs forward whenever 
the victim comes within its reach. This may be partly true, though it appears under many ex- 
aggerations ; for it is well authenticated that it remains motionless until considerable objects are 
quite close, and evidently within its reach ; then it leaps upon them. The agility of the croco- 
dile is not so great, even when in pursuit of prey, that a man may not escape at tolerable speed, 
more especially by frequent deviations from the straight path. The blow with the tail, suddenly 
given, is principally to be dreaded, and the irascibihty of the animal when attacked, or the female 
at the head of her young. 
Crocodiles are oviparous, and the eggs are but small in proportion to their size, not being 
quite so large as those of a goose. They are, as is the case with the eggs of reptiles generally, 
equally thick at both ends ; they are covered with an envelope which hardens in the air, but it 
contains very little carbonate of lime. The males are more numerous than the females, and 
fierce battles ensue between them in pairing time. These battles of gallantry are generally 
decided in the water, and they are accompanied by the most dismal bellowing that can possibly 
be imagined ; this noise is said to resemble both that of the buU and the bittern, but to be much 
louder, and more hoarse and husky than either. 
Tlie female digs a cavity in the earth, in which she places her eggs in a circular form, in suc- 
cessive layers, and with portions of earth between, the whole being afterward covered up. The 
nest is generally placed in a dry hillock, and the earth is gathered up, so that on the average the 
eggs are about ten inches beloAV the surface. This being done, the mother abandons them to be 
hatched by the heat of the sun ; yet instinct prompts her frequently to revisit the spot as the 
term of exclusion approaches. She then testifies uncommon agitation, roaming about the place 
and uttering a peculiar growling, as if to awaken her hideous off"spring to animation. The pe- 
riod of maturity being at length attained, the nascent crocodiles answer to her solicitude by a 
kind of yelping like puppies. A hollow murmur in return denotes her satisfaction, and she 
hastens to scrape up the earth with such anxiety that several of the young are generally crushed 
under her unwieldy body. 
Having withdrawn them from their nest, the mother leads them straightway to the neighbor- 
ing water ; but now her utmost vigilance is required for their preservation, for, unlike the instinct 
