72 
crocodiles’ eggs. 
having been seized and devoured ; a stray 
lamb or dog is also appreciated. These 
animals, in opposition to the customs of the 
tropics, like their food a little “gamey” and, 
after killing their prey, often put them by to 
putrify. 
Young. From thirty to sixty eggs are laid 
by the female who secretes them in the sand, 
or mud, near her haunts ; these eggs (PI. VI.), 
the size and colour of a goose’s, only more 
oblong, are hatched by the heat of the sun. 
The mother hurries her young off to shallow 
pools out of reach of the male who would, if 
opportunity permitted, eat them. Both 
mother and children have a peculiar cry, not 
unlike the bark or whine of a dog. 
Stones. A peculiar habit crocodiles have 
is that of swallowing stones. Whether these 
aid in digestion, as bits of gravel picked up 
by fowls do, or whether they merely excite 
the flow of digestive juices, or, again, whether 
they be to regulate the crocodiles buoyancy 
in water, are all questions that should proper- 
ly be put to the crocodile. “ All wrong ; 
guess again,” may well be the answer one 
would get. 
A Ride of interest is the well authenticated, 
casein G-osse’s “Naturalist in Jamaica” of 
the African, in St. Thomas in the East, who 
jumped astride a large crocodile and success- 
fully kept his seat until the animal was shot. 
SCORPIONS. 
Scorpions (PI. V. 5), together with spiders, 
belong to the group of Arachnida. and are not 
insects. 
