152 THE LIVING ANIMALS OL THE WORLD 
Photo by Scholastic Photo, Co. 
CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS, WITH YOUNG 
Not'ivithuanding their pro've.rbially irascible dispositions, these reptiles, of all ages and dimen- 
sions, herd together on the most amiable terms 
The method adopted in 
Queensland and North 
Australia for capturing these 
destructive monsters is that 
of a running noose, so at- 
tached to a suitably flexible 
mangrove tree growing in the 
vicinity of its nocturnal runs 
as to constitute a gigantic 
spring-trap. A dead carcase 
or other suitable bait is added 
to lure the animal to its 
doom. The crocodiles thus 
caught are alive and uninjured, 
and can be dispatched or 
reserved for menagerie exhi- 
bition. A somew'hat amusing 
incident attended the trans- 
port of a “ reprieved ” captive 
b}' steamship from Cairns to 
Brisbane, Queensland, a few 
years since. In the dead of 
night, when all but the watch and engineer had retired to rest (they have to anchor and lay-to 
at night in the Great Barrier Reef channels), the saurian managed to free himself from his 
bonds, and started on a voyage of discovery around the decks. Arriving at the stoke-hold, he 
either incontinently stumbled into it, or descended of malice prepense, sniffing the chance of 
a supper or a good joke at the engineer’s expense. Anyway, the engineer was aroused from his 
peaceful dozings with the impression that the last day of reckoning had arrived, and, rushing 
up the hatchway, awakened the whole ship’s strength with his frantic outcries. 
The Nile Crocodile, the most familiar form in European menageries, and once abundant 
throughout Eg\'pt to the Nile’s delta, has now retired to the upper reaches of that great 
river. It never attains to the dimensions of the estuarine form. By the ancient Egyptians, 
as is well known, this species 
was pampered and worshipped 
with divine honours while 
living, and after death em- 
balmed and preserved in the 
catacombs. 
Other noteworthy croco- 
diles, of which space will allow 
only of the mention of their 
names, are the AMERICAN or 
Orinoco C rocodi le, and the 
L O N G -S N O U r E I ) C R o C O I ) l L E 
of West Africa, which distantly 
approach to the LoNG- 
SNOUTED GAVIAL or GaRIAL 
of India, in which the snout 
is elongated in a beak-like 
manner, and armed with close 
rows of long, recurved teeth, 
specially adapted for its ex- 
Phetn by Robert D. Canon, £j?.] [_Phitade>phia 
A CROCODILE FROM SOUTHERN UNITED STATES 
The teeth of crocodiles, as compared ivith those of alligators, are much less uniform in sisx- 
and character 
