All the members of the Crocodile Family propagate by egg-production. The eggs are

of the World548 The Living Animals

relatively small in size, those of the largest species not exceeding that of a goose in dimensions. In shape they are more or less symmetrically ovate, and encased with a hard, white shell. In the case of the crocodile, the female selects a suitable dry sand-bank near the river's edge, in which it excavates a hole of about 2 feet deep, and, having deposited from twenty to sixty eggs therein, mounts guard over them, sleeping on top of the nest by is moreday, until the young are hatched. With the alligator, the site chosen for the nest usually among bushes or reeds at some distance from the water, and the eggs, which may be laid to the number of over 100, are covered over with leaves and vegetable debris, whose decomposition engenders the heat required for their successful incubation. In both instances the parent jealously guards the nest and repels all intruders until the eggs are hatched, and ultimately conducts the young ones to the water, where they soon learn to shift for themselves. Numbers of them, nevertheless, in their young and weak state, fall victims to vultures, hawks, little sauriansichneumons, and all manner of birds and beasts of prey. From their birth the are most vicious and irascible in disposition, hissing and snapping at or laying hold with bull-dog tenacity of a finger or other seizable object that may be held towards them. From their earliest days also they are eminently aggressive and carnivorous. Contenting themselves at first with flies and other insects, they speedily extend their attentions to frogs, lizards, fish, or any small animals which frequent the marshes and river-banks; and finally, with their concurrently increased appetites and dimensions, requisition such larger prey as sheep, goats, deer, horses, and, as before mentioned, even the human species, if they can steal a march on them unawares. Crocodiles are provided with relatively small gullets, and are necessarily incapable of swallowing any prey whole which is of large dimensions.

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] Milford-on-Sta. Accordingly any big quarry which A QUEENSLAND CROCODILE. is seized and dragged into the river The specimen referred to in the anecdote on page 550. is disposed of piecemeal, the reptile rending the carcase in fragments with the aid of its terrible teeth and side-wrenches of its ponderous body.

Of crocodiles proper, as distinguished from alligators, there are some dozen known species. From their last-named near allies they are distinguished by the entire absence of the supplementary bony armature which in most alligators underlies the outer horny cuirass on the under surface of the body. A more essential distinction is associated with the character of the teeth. The upper and lower teeth of the crocodile interlock, and the fourth lower canine-like tooth is received into a notch in the side of the upper jaw, and is consequently more or less visible when the mouth is closed. In the alligators, on the other hand, this bigger tusk-like tooth fits into a pit-like excavation in the upper jaw, and is invisible when the mouth is shut. The TRUE CROCODILES are found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Central America. The largest is undoubtedly the estuarine species, ranging from the eastern shores of India, through the Malay region, to North and East Australia, New Guinea, and the Fiji Islands. This wide range is a natural concomitant of their brackish- and salt-water proclivities. Individuals of the species are, in fact, not infrequently met with floating on the sea at some considerable distance from the land. An example of this estuarine species has been recorded which measured no less than 33 feet, while a length of 20 feet and over is by no means of uncommon occurrence.

Photo by J. W. McLdlan]

CROCODILE, WELL ILLUSTRATING THE CHARACTER OF THE DENTITION.

The lower tusk-like teeth fit into notches in the upper jaw, and are visible when the mouth is closed. In the alligator these teeth fit into pits in the upper jaw, and are hidden from view under the like conditions. 549

of the World550 The Living Animals

The method adopted in Queensland and North Australia for capturing these destructive monsters is that of a running noose, so attached to a suitably flexible mangrove-tree growing in the vicinity of its nocturnal runs as to constitute a gigantic spring-trap. A dead carcase or other suitable bait is added to lure the animal to its doom. The crocodiles thus caught are alive and uninjured, and can be dispatched or reserved for menagerie exhibition. A somewhat amusing

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.} [P incident attended the trans- " " CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS, WITH YOUNG. port of a reprieved captive Notwithstanding their proverbially irascible dispositions, these reptiles, of all ages and dimensions, by steamship from Cairns to herd together on the most amiable terms. Brisbane, Queensland, a few years since. In the dead of night, when all but the watch and engineer had retired to rest (they have to anchor and lay-to at night in the Great Barrier Reef channels), the saurian managed to free himself from his bonds, and started on a voyage of discovery around the decks. Arriving at the stoke-hold, he either incontinently stumbled into it, or descended of malice prepense, sniffing the chance of a supper or a good joke at the engineer's expense. Anyway, the engineer was aroused from his peaceful dozings with the impression that the last day of reckoning had arrived, and, rushing up the hatchway, awakened the whole ship's strength with his frantic outcries.

The NILE CROCODILE, the most familiar form in European menageries, and once abundant throughout Egypt to the Nile's delta, has now retired to the upper reaches of that great river. It never attains to the dimensions of the estuarine form. By the ancient Egyptians, as is well known, this species was pampered and worshipped with divine honours while living, and after death em-balmed and preserved in the catacombs. Other noteworthy crocodiles, of which space will allow only of the mention of their names, are the AMERICAN or ORINOCO CROCODILE, and the

LONG-SNOUTED CROCODILE of

West Africa, which distantly approach to the LONG-

SNOUTED GAVIAL or GARIAL

of India, in which the snout is elongated in a beak-like Photo by Robert D. Carson, Esq.] [Philadelphia. manner, and armed with close A CROCODILE FROM SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. rows of long, recurved teeth, The teeth of crocodiles, as compared with those of alligators, are much less uniform in size specially adapted for its ex- and character.

Crocodiles and Alligators 551

clusively fish-eating propensities. Full-grown examples of the gavial may attain to a length of 20 feet.

The TYPICAL or MISSISSIPPI ALLIGATOR is, as its name denotes, a North American form, having the modified dental and other structural details previously referred to, but otherwise in size and its aggressively destructive habits nearly corresponding with the Oriental crocodile. A second species of alligator is found in China. In the tropical South American rivers the place of the alligator is occupied by the CAIMANS, some of which attain to huge proportions, and are distinguished from the former by the greater development of the bony armature of both their back and undersurface, and by certain essential, but to the lay reader obscure, modifications of the skull. An example of the (TREAT CAIMAN once did duty as a riding-horse to the naturalist Waterton, as all those Co.] [Parson's Green.familiar with his book of travels Photo by Scholastic Photo. will remember. MISSISSIPPI AND CHINESE ALLIGATORS. species, which is the smaller of the two, feeds mainly upon fish. The habits of the caiman The Chinese differ somewhat locally. From the main stream of the Lower Amazon they are in the habit of migrating in the dry season to the inland pools and flooded forests. In the middle districts is excessive and protracted, the caimans are addicted toof the same river, where the drought burying themselves in the mud till the rains return; while in the upper reaches of the Amazon, where the droughts are not prolonged, the caimans are perennially present. The eggs of these reptiles are much esteemed for food by the natives of Dutch Guiana.

CHAPTER, II.

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

r I 1HE order of the Chelonians, including the Tortoises, Turtles, and Terrapins, with their JL allies, constitutes one of the most distinct and readily defined groups of the Eeptile

Class. The more or less complete bony shell, or carapace, which encases the body, and into which both head and limbs can in many cases be completely retracted, separates these reptiles very widely from the other orders. In some respects certain details of the skull-structure assimilate them to the Crocodiles; but here again there is an entire absence of the rows of formidable teeth, the upper and lower jaws being sharply pointed, covered with horn, and thus converted into a trenchant beak. The two leading groups of the Tortoises and the Turtles are distinctly separated, by the respective conformation of their limbs, for a terrestrial or aquatic existence. The Tortoises have normal walking-legs, with toes and, in most instances, claws, fitting them for walking on the land or burrowing into the earth. In the True Turtles

of the World552 The Living Animals

these limbs take the form of flattened paddles, and in no instance are more than two of the toes provided with claws. The TORTOISES are sub-divided by zoologists into some six or eight subordinate groups or families, for the most part distinguished by the respective modifications of their protective shells. This shell in all tortoises and turtles consists of two essential elements the upper or back casing, known as the " carapace," and the under one, or so-called " plastron," which covers the ventral surface. In some forms these two elements are completely welded into one another, forming a continuous box-like shell; in others they are more or less separate; while in yet another series the lower shell is rudimentary. These distinctions have been found to constitute a convenient basis for classification. In the TRUE LAND-TORTOISES, which invite first attention, the upper and lower shells are completely united in a box-like form, and the neck, bent in the form of the letter S, can be completely retracted within it. The limbs are club-shaped, covered with horny scales or tubercles, and adapted for walking, the toes being unwebbed, and provided with strong claw-like nails. Pre-eminent among this typical terrestrial series come the huge GIANT or ELEPHANT-TORTOISES, formerly

Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni] abundant, as their fossil remains indicate, in Southern and North and South America, and now ASIATIC TORTOISES. Europe, India, A tortoise, like a turtle, turned over on its back, repre- represented only in the isolated oceanic islands of Aldabra, sents one of the most helpless of living animals. off Madagascar, the Seychelles, and the Galapagos groups. Even within historic times they were very abundant in the islands of Mauritius and Eodrigues; but their huge size and lethargic habits, combined with their esculent qualities, have brought about their extermination. Those remaining in the islands mentioned are now so reduced in numbers that there is a possibility of their becoming extinct at an early date, and this notwithstanding the strenuous endeavours that are being made to save them. A large percentage of the small residue of these giant Chelonians have been transported from their island homes and presented to the London Zoological Gardens, where they are now comfortably housed. An instructive idea of the aspect and relative dimensions of these giant tortoises may be obtained by a reference to page vii of the First Volume, in which one of these Chelonians is shown to be equal in size and strength is recorded that theseto carrying a human rider. It reptiles were so abundant in the island of Rodrigues in 1691 that one might count as many as 3,000 of them in a single flock, and walk for over 100 paces upon their backs. All of these giant tortoises, as obtained from separate island groups, or islets of the groups, exhibit Photo by C, N. Mavroyeni] [Smyriia. characteristic differences, indicating the length of time EUROPEAN TORTOISE. tortoise's shell, or carapace, constitutes a portablethey have been separated from one another. The A age to which these giant tortoises attain is altogether house,shelter whereinin inclementthe animalweather,can entirelyor whenwithdrawattacked forby enemies.phenomenal. One example at Port Louis, Mauritius,

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