270 
CROCODILES AND SNAKES 
violent battles between the males. The huge tails beat the water so 
violently at such times that it shoots up into the air like a fountain 
and all animals flee from the neighborhood. The female crocodile 
lays from forty to sixty eggs the size and shape of a goose egg, covered 
with a rough chalky shell, and then covers them with sand. She then 
stays near them and watches them with great care. When the young 
ones are ready to creep out of their shells, she breaks them open since 
the young crocodile cannot do this itself. Until very recently no one 
has been able to explain how the mother crocodile knew just the right 
moment in which to break open the shell. A naturalist has noticed 
that the young animals make a peculiar noise which serves as a signal 
to the watchful mother. The crocodile is of little use to the European. 
The natives, however, regard the crocodile meat, fat and eggs as a 
delicate food. The natives kill the crocodile with an iron-tipped spear. 
The modern fire-arm is much more effective, the bullets of which 
always pierce through their tough coats. 
Tortoises.— What the advantage of the strong coat is to the 
tortoise is not very difficult to see, for it acts, of course, as a protec¬ 
tion against the many creatures which would be only too glad to prey 
upon so dainty a morsel if they were able to do so. Many of the 
tortoises have no offensive weapons of any kind, and, but for their 
hard shells, would be quite at the mercy of their enemies, while even 
those which are gifted with sharply-edged and powerful jaws are not 
sufficiently active to make very much use of them, and a foe approach¬ 
ing them from the rear would easily be able to overcome them. But, 
secure in their armor-like garments, the tortoises can bid defiance to 
almost any foe excepting man himself, and so afford us another instance 
of the perfect manner in which nature has formed every part of the 
bodies of her servants. 
There are many kinds of tortoises found in different parts of the 
world, some of which live upon land and others in the water. Several 
of these are very curious. 
The land tortoises possess large and powerful claws, which, when 
urged by the mighty muscles of the limbs, will tear up the soil at a 
really wonderful pace. Those which live in the water, have their toes 
connected with one another by broad and strong webbing, so that here, 
