M. bakbot’s ckocodile. 
411 
maxillary bone, and lifts the whole head like the 
coved lid of a caddy : by this mechanism the Croco- 
dile, on elevating its nostrils just barely out of the 
water, is able to breathe. With the body and head 
sunk below the surface, it keeps the under jaw 
pressed upward, and holds fast its drowning victim, 
its own breathing all the while being carried on at 
ease. The mouth is open, but the throat is shut, 
the gular valve being closed against all access of 
either air or water. 
In some previous observations set down by me 
on the Cayman of St. Domingo, identical with our 
Crocodile, I had mentioned that, beside the habit 
constantly maintained by a young one kept in the 
garden of the French consul at Cape Haitien, of 
stuffing its mangled prey into the pond banks till it 
was putrid, it used to lie for hours together, with 
nostrils barely elevated above the water, keeping in 
its mouth junkets of frogs it had killed, without 
eating them. I now see that this habit was the young 
Cayman practising the art of drowning living prey. 
It did not eat what it had in its mouth while within 
the water, because its structure was as unsuited for 
feeding as it was for breathing open-mouthed in 
that element; and its feeble palatal organisation 
could scarcely do more towards gratifying its taste 
with the portion of frog it held, than keeping con- 
stantly present a sort of sensual consciousness of 
food. I have a lively and pleasurable recollection of 
the garden of Consul Barbot at Cape Haitien. A 
small plateau at the foot of the Haut du Cap Moun- 
tain, filled with clumps of shrubberies and scattered 
