. Natural history. Zoology. CROCODILES, ALLIGATORS, AND GA RIALS. 381 the order ; but the female buries her eggs—which may reach a hundred in number—among leaves and other decaying vegetable matter, in order to hasten the process of hatching ; and during the pairing-season the males spend much of their time on land. The Chinese species feeds largely upon iish. The typical or true crocodiles are readily distinguished from both the fore- going genera by the circumstance that the upper teeth interlock with the lower ones, and likewise by the fourth lower tooth generally biting into a notch in the
. Natural history. Zoology. CROCODILES, ALLIGATORS, AND GA RIALS. 381 the order ; but the female buries her eggs—which may reach a hundred in number—among leaves and other decaying vegetable matter, in order to hasten the process of hatching ; and during the pairing-season the males spend much of their time on land. The Chinese species feeds largely upon iish. The typical or true crocodiles are readily distinguished from both the fore- going genera by the circumstance that the upper teeth interlock with the lower ones, and likewise by the fourth lower tooth generally biting into a notch in the upper jaw. In the skull the nasal True Crocodiles bones extend only as far forwards as the hinder margin of {Crocodilus). the nostrils ; and whereas there are from seventeen to nine- teen upper teeth, in the lower jaw the number is constantly fifteen. In all, the under surface of the body is devoid of bony plates. Crocodiles are repre- sented by about eleven species, which are distributed over the south of Asia, Africa, Madagascar, the north of Australia, and Tropical America, and it is not a little remarkable that one of these {Ch-ocodiliis pcyrosns) extends from India to Queensland, being also found in some of the islands of Polynesia, such as the Solomons and Fiji. This wide distribution is, however, readily explained by this species be- ing largely estuarine in its habits, and taking readily to salt water, whereas all the others are fresh-water rep- tiles. Great difference ob- tains in the form of the skull in the various representatives of the genus, the Oriental magar (C. pcdusiris) having a short and broad alligator-like snout, whereas in the sharp- nosed crocodile (0, ameri- canvs) of Central America, the muzzle is comparatively long, narrow, and pointed. Even in this species, how- ever, the short front union between the two branches of the lower jaw is retained. In its still more elongated snout, the West African long-nosed crocodile (0. cataphractus) forms a conn
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