398 
SPANISH-TOWN. 
THE CROCODILE. 
In some parts of Jamaica, Crocodiles (or, as they 
are usually called, Alligators) are sufficiently nume- 
rous ; but in the neighbourhood of Bluefields they 
are so rare that, though I occasionally heard reports 
of one and another having been seen in the creeks 
and morasses around, I was never so fortunate as to 
fall in with a living specimen. 
To atone for my lack of personal observation on 
these animals, I have pleasure in extracting from my 
correspondence with Mr. Hill, many valuable notes, 
containing much that is new and interesting, and 
tending to explain some things that have hitherto 
appeared discrepant and contradictory. There is no 
evidence, I believe, that any species of Alligator, 
properly so called, inhabits the Antilles : the Cro- 
codile of Jamaica is C. acutus, the Slender-muzzled, 
possessed by this island in common with Martinique 
and Hayti, and represented in Cuba by the Lozenge- 
scaled Crocodile {C. rhomhifer). 
The first extract that I shall make refers to the 
mode of feeding ; and though my friend used the 
term Alligator, he subsequently ascertained, on the 
authority of Descourtiltz, that the species is C. 
acutus. 
Mr. Waterton, I perceive, in his second series 
of Essays, contradicts Swainson’s statement respect- 
ing the habit of the Cayman, Ho convey its food 
to some hole at the edge of the water, where it 
is suffered to putrefy before it is devoured.’ He 
says, this statement must be rejected, because ‘ the 
