CLASS III. REPTILIA: ORDER 2. LORICATA. 
369 
with which she is animated, the male, silently approaching, will frequently devour them before 
she is aware of their danger. He perpetually seeks their destruction ; and the watch of the female 
over her young is protracted for three months from their first appearance. An opinion is preva- 
lent that the crocodile continues growing during its whole existence, that it lives to a great age, 
and that the utmost limits of its size are scarcely known. 
This species is very voracious and powerful, and has frequent)}^ made fatal attacks upon human 
beings. It was held sacred by the Egyptians of the Lower Nile, but was eaten by those at Ele- 
phantine. Thirty-six of these were introduced at the amphitheater of Rome by Augustus. 
Some have supposed it to be the Leviathan of Scripture. Many were kept tame by the ancient 
Egyptians, and were ornamented with gold rings and precious stones, set in their ears ; their feet 
were garnished with bracelets, and they were thus presented to the veneration of the people. 
These reptiles were fed on cake and roast meat, and mulled wine Avas poured down their throats. 
Herodotus says that a species of plover was wont to enter the mouth of the crocodile to feed 
on the parasitic worms in its tongue, and that the monster tolerated this, in view of the relief it 
gave. Modern observation has confirmed this curious accoimt. This species has mostly disap- 
peared from the LoAver Nile, and is only common in that river to the south of Middle Egypt. 
It is, hoAvever, abundant in many of the gTcat rivers of Africa. 
There are several species of Crocodile in Africa and Asia, generally resembling the preceding : 
the St. Domingo Crocodile, C. aciihcs, 
has the muzzle longer in proportion and 
more pointed than that Ave have described, 
but more enlarged at the base. The 
scaly plates on the back are ranged in 
four lines. This species is common in 
the rivers and marshes of Hayti, and most 
of the other large West India Islands. 
It has been confounded Avith the crocodile 
of the Nile, and also Avith the alligators 
of the American continent ; its manners 
are similar to those of the latter, but there 
are considerable differences in its external 
structure. 
Another species, the Aque Palin, C. 
'/•ho7nbifer, is found in Cuba. 
Genus GAVIx\L : Gavialis. — Of this 
there are several varieties, found in Asia. 
The Gangetic Gavial or Nakoo, G. Gan- 
ffetica, has the jaws produced to an enormous length, forming a long, slender snout, at the ex- 
tremity of which there is a large cartilaginous protuberance, in, which the nostrils are situated. 
The teeth are very numerous, and nearly equal in size throughout the Avhole of the jaws. The 
hind-feet are palmated to the extremities of the toes. This species is found abundantly in the 
fresh waters of India, where it sometimes attains a length of thirty feet. It is not dangerous to 
man nor the larger quadrupeds. It was knoAvn to the ancients, ^lian mentioning the existence 
of a crocodile in the Ganges which had a horn at the extremity of its nose. Though, as Ave have 
stated, there are several marked varieties, there appears to be but one species. 
Genus ALLIGATOR : Alligator. — This includes several species, all belonging to the American 
continent, and called Alligators in the United States, Caimans and Jacares in South America. 
Tliey resemble the true crocodiles, but there are structural differences which are thus stated by 
Cuvier : " The alligators have the head less oblong than the crocodiles ; its length is to its breadth, 
measured at the articulation of the jaAVS, as three to tAvo ; the teeth are unequal in length and 
size ; there are at least nineteen, sometimes even as many as twenty-two, on each side in the 
lower jaw, and nineteen or twenty in the upper. The front teeth of the under jaw pierce through 
the upper at a certain age, and the fourth from the front, which are the longest of all, enter into. 
Vol. IL— 47. 
