CROCODILE, a formidable reptile, giving name to the family of the Crocodilidae, and which from its size and strength is usually assigned the first place in the saurian order. The Crocodilidae are indigenous to all quarters of the world except Europe; and the members of the family are associated by many and well-defined characteristics, of which the following are the most marked. They all attain a great size; sometimes, though not very frequently, they are found 30 feet in length. Their tail is compressed laterally. Their fore-feet have five toes; their hind-feet four, which are united by membranes more or less strongly marked. Each jaw is furnished with a single row of teeth. The tongue is flat, and attached nearly the whole length of its margin. The back and tail are protected by great scales which are strong enough to resist a leaden musket ball. The nostrils open at the end of the snout by two small apertures, which shut with valves. The lower jaw reaches behind the cranium, which gives the animal the appearance of being able to move its upper as well as its under jaw. The external ears shut at will by two fleshy lips. The eye has three eye-lids, two of them horizontal, like those of the human being, and the third a membrana nictitans. Of all the saurians the Crocodilidae are the only family that are destitute of clavicles. The gullet of the crocodile is extremely wide. That variety of the animal which abounds in the Nile is, next to the gavial, the most active on land, and of all the species the one that most readily frequents the open sea. The organs of excretion are small, and their digestion is accordingly found to possess an immense biliary apparatus. They are oviparous, and bury their eggs in the sand; and the female remains in the vicinity to dig them out on the day that the young ones break the shell. The invulnerability of the crocodiles may be imagined from the following incident. One being brought well bound to the bazaar of Cawnpore on the Ganges, it was purchased by British officers on the spot and carried further inland for the purpose of being baited. Accordingly, the ligatures, except those which secured the muzzle, being cut asunder, the monster, though it had been many hours exposed to the heat, and was almost suffocated with dust, fought its way through an immense crowd of assailants, soldiers and natives, armed with staves, lances, swords, and stones, and worried by numerous terriers, hounds, and curs. It overturned all in its way, till, scenting the water at a distance of two miles, it reached the river in spite of the most strenuous opposition.
Of all the animals deemed sacred by the Egyptians, none were held in higher veneration than the crocodile. Proof of this is to be found not only in the accounts we have of the temples and priests consecrated to its worship, but even in the floating traditions of the country. In Brown's
Cresus. Travels we find the following story:—"The people of Isna in Upper Egypt have a tradition concerning crocodiles similar to that entertained in the West Indies. They say there is a king of them, who resides near Isna, who has ears but no tail; and he possesses an uncommon regal quality, that of doing no harm. Some are bold enough to assert that they have seen him." It is upon this tradition that Southey has founded his humorous pathetic ballad of the "King of the Crocodiles." See index to REPTILIA.