THE CROCODILE FAMILY 
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Florida crocodile, the mugger of India, followed 
by the broad-headed West African crocodile, 
and ending with the alligator, widest of all. 
THE CROCODILE FAMILY. 
Crocodilidae. 
Erroneous Impressions Corrected. — Re- 
garding these reptiles, a number of the erroneous 
impressions which are now prevailing should be 
corrected. Some of them are as follows: 
The true crocodiles are not confined to the Old 
World, four species being found in America. 
Alligators are not wholly confined to America; 
for a small species exists in China. 
The “movement ” of a crocodile’s jaws differs 
in no manner whatever from 'that of an alligator. 
Only a very few species of crocodilians are 
dangerous to man. 
So far as the author is aware, there is no au- 
thentic record of the loss of a human life by our 
common alligator. 
All crocodilians swim with their tails, not their 
feet. 
The skin of a large crocodilian is by no means 
impervious to rifle bullets. A bullet sometimes 
strikes a bony plate and glances off ; but a 
proper bullet, properly placed, will penetrate 
the skin or armor of the largest alligator or croco- 
dile, at any point. 
The author believes that no crocodile or alli- 
gator of to-day exceeds 20 feet in length, by actual 
measurement; and one of that length is one out 
of ten thousand. 
Food. — C rocodilians are not epicures, and 
some species devour all kinds of vertebrate ani- 
mals that they can capture, from man to mud- 
hens. But the supply of obtainable mammals 
and birds is very limited, and fish constitutes 
by far the greater portion of their daily food. 
If all the scaly monsters of this Order were 
limited in food to the mammals and aquatic 
birds which can be seized when drinking at the 
water’s edge, or swimming in mid-stream, they 
would indeed go hungry. 
It is a comparatively easy matter for a large 
crocodilian to seize a quadruped of medium size, 
draw it into deep water while struggling, and 
drown it. 
In the Reptile House of the Zoological Park, 
during a fight between two large alligators in the 
pool, it was discovered how an alligator dis- 
. members a bulky victim in order to devour it. 
An alligator seized a fighting enemy by one leg, 
and using his tail as a propeller, whirled him- 
self round and round like a revolving shaft, until 
in about five seconds the leg was twisted off, 
close up to the body! That deadly rotary move- 
ment would have torn a leg from a small ele- 
phant. 
On another occasion, a twelve-foot alligator 
named “ Moses ” became angry at an eight-foot 
companion, seized it by the body, lifted it clear 
of the water, and shook it until the tough skin of 
the back was torn in two at the joint immediately 
in front of the hind legs. 
In the course of work among the crocodiles of 
Ceylon, I found that some crocodiles will eat the 
flesh of their own kind, and do so with genuine 
relish. Crocodiles which I skinned and left be- 
side a pool were promptly eaten by their relatives, 
who in their turn were also killed, dissected and 
eaten. 
Man-Eating Crocodiles. — Out of the nine- 
teen species of crocodiles and alligators (eight of 
which I have observed in their haunts), so far as 
1 can learn only three are dangerous to man. 
The most dangerous man-eater is the salt-water 
crocodile of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and 
surrounding regions. This reptile attains a size 
of sixteen feet, and in the Territory of Sarawak, 
Borneo, it devours so many people the govern- 
ment has for years paid a cash reward for its de- 
struction. Its method is to take advantage of 
the murky waters of the rivers, swim up to a 
village bathing-place, seize any man or woman 
found bathing in the shallow water, or filling a 
water-jar, and back off into deep water. 
The West African crocodiles, 1 of Angola and 
other portions of West Africa, are the boldest of 
all crocodilians, sometimes attacking people who 
are in canoes, and dragging a victim from a boat. 
(William Harvey Brown.) 
The gavial and mugger of India are harmless 
to man, and so are the American crocodiles, and 
the alligator. I have gone swimming in the 
home waters of both the gavial and alligator,— 
the two extremes in jaw development,— and 
therefore feel sure that both are harmless. 
Nesting-Habits. — All the crocodilians repro- 
1 This is the Nile crocodile, which is widely dis- 
tributed throughout Africa. 
