CAIMANS. 
17 
caiman (Caiman niger), from the rivers of tropical South America eastwards of 
the Andes, which takes its name from the black of the upper surface of the body, 
the under-parts being yellow. This species, which generally attains a length of 
about 14 feet, is characterised by its partially bony and flat upper eyelid, by the 
presence of upper temporal fossae in the skull, by the number of teeth in each 
premaxillary or anterior upper jawbone being five, and the number of lower teeth 
being seventeen or eighteen. Nearly allied, although of much smaller size, are 
the broad-nosed caiman ( C. latirostris), ranging from the Amazon to the Rio de 
la Plata, and the spectacled caiman (C. sclerops), from Central and South America; 
both of which have the upper eyelid rugose, with a small horn-like projection, 
while in the skull the socket of the eye does not extend so far forwards. Both are 
uniformly blackish when adult; but in the former the skull is very wide, and the 
number of lower teeth from seventeen to eighteen, while in the latter the skull is 
narrower, and the lower teeth vary from eighteen to twenty. The two remaining 
species ( C. trigonatus and C. palpebrosus) are still smaller, and characterised by 
the colour of the upper-parts being yellowish brown, spotted and barred with 
black; while the upper eyelid is completely bony, the skull has no upper temporal 
fossa, there are but four teeth in each premaxillary bone, and the number of lower 
teeth is from twenty to twenty-two on each side. 
On the Amazon and Orinoco, as well as other South American rivers, caimans 
are to be met with in myriads, and appear to be very similar in their habits to the 
crocodiles of the Old World. Writing of the great caiman—jacare-uassu of the 
natives—Bates says that “ it grows to a length of eighteen or twenty feet, and 
attains an enormous bulk. Like the turtles, the alligator [as he calls it] has its 
annual migrations, for it retreats to the interior pools and flooded forests in the 
dry season. During the months of high water, therefore, scarcely a single in¬ 
dividual is to be seen in the main river. In the middle part of the Lower Amazon, 
about Obydos and Villa Nova, where many of the lakes with their channels of 
communication with the trunk stream dry up in the fine months, the alligator 
buries itself in the mud and becomes dormant, sleeping till the rainy season returns. 
On the Upper Amazon, where the dry season is never excessive, it has not this 
habit. It is scarcely exaggerating to say that the waters of the Solimoens are as 
well stocked with large alligators as a ditch in England is in summer with tadpoles.” 
By the natives of these regions the caiman is at once despised and feared; the 
same traveller relating how on one occasion he saw a party boldly enter the water 
and pull to shore one of these large reptiles by its tail; while at another time two 
medium-sized specimens that had been captured in a net were coolly returned to 
the water hard by where a couple of children were playing. Sometimes, however, 
they have to pay dearly for such temerity. The Indians of Guiana, according to 
Waterton, capture the caiman by means of a baited hook and line, the former 
being composed of several pieces of wood, which become fixed in the creature’s 
jaws. Waterton’s account of his ride on the back of a caiman thus caught is 
probably familiar to many of our readers; and we have read of a similar feat being 
accomplished elsewhere. The eggs of the great caiman, which are about the size 
of those of a turkey, are said to be not unfrequently deposited in a heap of dry 
leaves, and are much sought after as food by the natives of Dutch Guiana. 
vol. v. — 2 
