3 ° 
CROCODILES. 
Probably owing; to a clerical error on the part of its first describer 
Garial, 47 ° L 
the slender-snouted crocodile known in India by the vernacular 
name of garial, is almost always spoken of in Europe as the gavial, while its mis¬ 
spelt name has even been Latinised into Gavialis —an error which some writers 
persist in perpetuating. The garial (Gavialis gcmgetica) is readily distinguished 
at a glance from all other crocodiles by the exceeding length and slenderness of 
GANGETIC GARIAL nat. size). 
its snout; the length varying from more than five times the basal width in the 
young to rather more than three in the adult. This narrow snout gives to the 
reptile a decidedly curious appearance; and it is perhaps noteworthy that both 
the garial and the gangetic dolphin, which inhabit the same rivers, and probably 
feed on the same kind of food, have similarly elongated beak-like snouts, armed 
with very similar curved and slender conical teeth ; this resemblance being doubt¬ 
less due to adaptation to a similar mode of life. From Schiedel’s darial, the 
present species is readily distinguished by the nasal bones being very short, and 
