48 
CROCODILE. 
the side of the river, with a hollow in the middle, 
which she lines with leaves and other vegetable 
matter. In this place she deposits her eggs, and 
then covers them with leaves. She performs this 
first command of nature with great caution : being 
aware of the many enemies which attend to destroy 
her progeny, she carefully looks around, and the 
presence of a man, a beast, or even a bird, is suf- 
ficient to deter her from her purpose, and cause her 
to retire. If, however, all is quiet and no one in 
sight, she slowly steals from the water and deposits 
her burthen. The eggs are not all laid at one time, 
but at intervals of a few days, and the number 
from one female amounts to about a hundred in 
a year. It is remarkable that the egg of such a 
monstrous animal should scarcely be larger than 
that of a goose, to which indeed it bears a great re- 
semblance, being shaped like it, and covered with 
a calcareous shell, having a membrane underneath. 
In the British Museum there is one preserved in 
spirits, together with the young crocodile about five 
inches long. 
The eggs are hatched solely by the heat of the 
sun, and the young crocodiles escape from their 
confinement at the appointed time, by breaking the 
shell either with the head or with the serrated tu- 
bercles on the back. 
“ So from his shell, on Delta’s showerless isle. 
Bursts into birth the monster of the Nile.” 
The moment they are liberated they proceed to 
