Fig. 34.—Alligator (Crocodilus lucius).
The female Alligator takes more care of her young than the female Crocodile, properly so called. She conducts them to the water, and in the slimy mud she disgorges her half-digested food for their nourishment.
The true Crocodiles are indigenous to Africa, but they are found also in Manilla and India. Their length of head is almost double its breadth. The fourth tooth of the lower jaw is the longest and largest of all, and passes into an indentation hollowed out in the edge of the upper jaw, becoming visible on the outside. The hind feet have on their external edge a dentated crest, and the interstices of their toes, externally, are palmated.
The principal type is the Common Crocodile, C. vulgaris, which sometimes attains the length of nine or ten feet. The upper part of the body of these reptiles is of an olive green colour spotted with black, and marbled upon the head and neck with the same colour, also the back and tail; two or three broad, oblique black bands are visible upon the flanks of the under part of the body, which is of a yellowish green. Crocodiles abound in Africa. Formerly they were found in all parts of the Nile, but lately it is said that C. vulgaris is no longer to be met with in the Delta, but that it exists in great numbers in the Thebaid and in the Upper Nile. They are also found in the rivers Senegal and Niger, in Caffraria, and in Madagascar. Most authors give them the name of Crocodiles of the Nile. This species are found also in India.
The Crocodile was considered a sacred animal by the ancient Egyptians. In ruins of temples mummies of Crocodiles are still found in a perfect state of preservation. The Romans introduced living Crocodiles at the national games in the Colosseum. At first only five were imported under the ædileship of Scaurus. Under the Emperor Augustus thirty-six were killed in the Circus of Flaminius. Several ancient medals represent this reptile, the body of which perfectly resembles that which now lives in the waters and on the banks of the Nile. There is a truly wonderful fact in the natural history of the Crocodile. Listen to what Herodotus, the father of history, tells us with regard to it:—"When the Crocodile takes his food in the Nile, the interior of its mouth is always covered with bdella (flies). All birds, with one single exception, flee from the Crocodile; but this one, the Nile Bird, Trochylus, far from avoiding it, flies towards the reptile with the greatest eagerness, and renders it a very essential service. Every time the Crocodile goes on shore to sleep, and at the moment when it lies extended with open jaws, the Nile Bird enters the mouth of the terrible animal and delivers it from the bdella which it finds there; the Crocodile shows its recognition of the service, and never harms the bird."
This fact, reported by Herodotus, was long considered to be a fable, but the naturalist, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who formed part of the commission that General Bonaparte took with him in his expedition into Egypt, had on several occasions opportunities of proving the truth of the historian's narrative.
In a memoir read to the Academy of Science on the 28th of January, 1828, he says, "It is perfectly true that there exists a little bird which flies about, perpetually seeking, even in the mouth of the Crocodile, the insects which form the principal part of its nourishment." This bird, which Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire recognised as the Charadrius Ægyptius of ornithologists, is like a Plover. The bdella, which thus torment the Crocodiles, and even excite them to madness, are no other than our European gnats. Myriads of these insects haunt the banks of the Nile, and when these giants of its waters repose on its margin, warming themselves in the sun, they become the prey of these insignificant pigmies. It is like the war between the Lion and the Mouse, described by La Fontaine. The bdella fly into the Crocodiles' mouths in such numbers that they cover the entire surface of the palate, and form a brownish crust. These little pests pierce the tongues of the reptiles with their stings. It is then that this bird comes into the mouth of the monster to catch them, and deliver it from such innumerable enemies. The Crocodile with one bite could easily destroy the bird, but he knows too well what he owes to this friend to do it an injury. Crocodiles of the Nile are more voracious than the American Alligators. Hasselquist asserts that in Upper Egypt they often devour women who come to draw water from the Nile, as well as children playing upon its banks. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire says, that in the Thebaid they often met with Arabs wanting an arm or leg, who accused Crocodiles of this mutilation. Sir Samuel Baker also mentions, in his late work on the Nile and its tributaries, the desire of these amphibia for human flesh, and the dread they are held in by the natives. Livingstone, the celebrated traveller, gives the following account of an encounter he had with one of these ferocious animals:—
"The Crocodile," says the celebrated traveller, "makes many victims every year among the children who are so imprudent as to play on the banks of the Liambia when their mothers go to fetch water. The Crocodile stupefies its victim with a blow from its tail, then drags it into the river, where it is soon drowned. In general, when the Crocodile perceives a Man it dives, and furtively glides away from the side which he occupies. Sometimes, on the other hand, it precipitates itself with surprising agility towards the person it has discovered, which may be noticed from the disturbance caused on the surface of the water. An Antelope which is being hunted and takes to the water, in the lagunes of the Barotsé valley, a Man or a Dog who goes there to seek for game, will scarcely fail to be seized by a Crocodile, of whose presence he has not the slightest suspicion. It often happens that, after having danced in the moonlight, the young natives of the river's bank will often plunge into the water in order to refresh themselves, when, being seized by an Alligator, they perish."
[This mode of attack (striking with the tail) is also one of the methods adopted by the Alligator of America for disabling its prey. A friend, on whose veracity I have much dependence, while shooting wild fowl on one of the tributaries of the Lower Mississippi, had the fortune to witness a fight between a Bear and an Alligator. He was called to the scene of the struggle by the noise made by the combatants, in the dry cane, that yielded to their pressure as they fought in each other's embrace. Several times both ceased only to recover breath and fresh energy; at length the Alligator missed striking the foe with its tail, Bruin seized the opportunity, and with all his efforts succeeded in turning the amphibian on its back, where he held him for some minutes, at the same time gnawing one of the fore-shoulders. A final struggle of the now worsted Alligator hurled both into the water, where they disappeared, the disturbed surface telling of the dreadful contest that was being prolonged beneath; after the lapse of over a minute the Bear came up, evidently much fatigued, and swam ashore, my friend forbearing to wound, or possibly kill, the gallant conqueror.]
Crocodiles, it is said, which have never eaten human flesh, are much less dangerous than those that have acquired a taste for it. Mr. Combes states that he was assured by an inhabitant of Khartoum, who had reached the town with the Egyptian troops—that is to say, before the horrors committed by the Desterdar, acting with Mehemet Bey, who had been Governor of the Soudan some time before Mr. Combes's voyage—that the Crocodiles appeared to be quite indifferent to human flesh; but after the many executions by drowning ordered by Mehemet Bey, as he was told by a native whom he interrogated—"since the Nile has been loaded with the carcasses of my brethren"—the monsters which inhabit it have become habituated to substantial food, which they scarcely knew before: so that afterwards those swimming in the river, or even bathing on its banks, were exposed to imminent danger.