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amphibious animal is claed among the Lizard Tribe. A courage fierce and avage, aided by great bodily trength, joined to a coniderable hare of cunning, or tratagem, compoe the great outline of this animal’s character.

Of a bulk truly formidable from 18 to 28 feet long, they are univerally dreaded; always on the watch, with activity and appetite ever ready, the Crocodile lets lip no opportunity of committing his depredations on animal nature; the water is his proper element, but if his voracity has caued a carcity of game here, hid among the reeds, he lies in wait on the banks of the river, expecting the approach of ome thirty animal, compelled by the heat to regale nature with a lap of water, then the Crocodile immediately eizes upon, and pulls down his prey; where, unles of very large bulk, it rarely ecapes being preently drowned, holding his prey both by his claws and his mouth, which, in one 17 feet long, will open near 2 feet, a gape ufficient to take firm hold of man or beat.

This animal is oviparous, or generated by eggs, which the female depoits with the utmot ecrecy and circumpection in the and, on the hore of the river; cratching a hole in a uitable place, in about an hour he depoits near an hundred eggs, then covers the place with the mot edulous anxiety for their afety; the ame tak is performed the ucceeding and third day, when about 300 eggs are depoited, thee covered with great care with the and, he commits to the fotering hand of Nature: the heat of the un in about 30 days animates the eggs, and now Nature prompts the mother to eek after her young by clearing away the and; the brood thus liberated, ome take immediately to the water, while others mounted on her back, are introduced to their fluid habitation with more eae and afety; this parental care oon ubides; their proper element once gained, afety depends on their agility and caution.

The ferocity of the Crocodile, like other wild animals, very much abates as his abode is more or les in an inhabited country. In unfrequented rivers they lie baking in droves together, and have the appearance of large trunks of trees, with rough and rugged bark floating on the water; yet, thus apparently torpid, appetite is awake, and the approach of any animal is quickly followed by a conflict for victory. In more populous countries the undivided tyranny of man has reduced them within better bounds. It is reported, the children of the Siamee play with them in a very familiar manner, and will even correct them with blows; it is true, indeed, thee people treat them more as friends than enemies. The revere to this is the general character of the Crocodile, whoe great fecundity mut be very alarming, had not the wie, the beneficent hand of Providence appointed a bird of the Vulture kind, and an animal called the Ichneumon, with an appetite peculiarly fond of the Crocodile’s eggs.

The colour is a greenih brown, the upper part of the body is covered with a very thick and rough kin, proof againt the edge of a word; the belly, of a greenih white, is more vulnerable; the eye is very prominent and large, of a yellowih green; the feet are hort, but very mucular; with its tail it uually knocks down and tuns its prey. Inhabits mot great rivers of Aia, Africa, and America: the Nile in Egypt has ever been famous for them.