leather and morocco in Baktshissarai, Karasubazar, and Koslof, and to cutlery and sadlers' and shoemakers' work at Baktshissarai. In some places coarse earthenware is made. The Greeks in the neighbourhood of Kaffa extract soda from some saline plants. The chief exports of the Crimea by sea are salt, wheat, soda, butter, and hides: the imports, raw and manufactured cotton of different kinds; silk stuffs of various patterns and in the eastern fashion; wines of the Archipelago, and the straits of Constantinople; brandy, Turkish leaf-tobacco, and a variety of fresh and dried fruits. To Russia are sent, chiefly by the way of Perecop, salt, grey and black lamb-skins, sheep's and bullocks' hides, wool, camels' hair, leather, hare-skins, wines, walnuts, fruits, together with the dry fruits imported from other parts, and fish. The imports are grain, provisions, iron, and different manufactured goods of Russia. fact of few words being universally understood in the same The Greeks became early acquainted with this peninsula, probably soon after the Ionian Greeks and especially the inhabitants of Miletus had begun to form settlements on the northern shores of Asia Minor, about six centuries before the Christian æra. Panticapaeum is called by Strabo a colony of the Milesians. Besides this place they built Theodosia, now Feodosia or Kaffa, and some other places on the peninsula forming the west side of the strait of Yenikale. They preferred this part of the peninsula, from its containing a large tract fit for agriculture, and projects or objects: the former is the absolute, the latter the ducing very rich crops-Strabo says thirty times the seed. It was at one time considered the granary of Greece, especially of Athens, whose territory being of small extent and of indifferent fertility, was unable to maintain its great population by its own produce. At one time Athens annually imported from the Crimea between 300,000 and 400,000 medimni of grain, as Demosthenes informs us, in his Oration against Leptines (c. 9). Strabo says, that in one year the Athenians received 2,100,000 medimni from Theodosia, but the text is evidently corrupt. [BOSPORUS.] (Strabo, vii.; Pallas; Lyall's Travels in Russia; Captain Jones's Travels in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Turkey.) CRINOIDEA. [ENCRINITE.] CRIOCE'RIDE (Leach), a family of Coleopterous insects, of the sub-section Eupoda and section Tetramera, distinguished by the following characters:-mandibles truncated at the apex, or presenting two or three notches: labium generally entire, or but slightly emarginated: antennæ of moderate length, filiform, somewhat thickened towards the apex; the joints mostly of an obconic form; tarsi with the penultimate joint bilobed; femora often thick, especially towards the apex. The principal genera contained in this family areDonacia, Hamonia, Ptauristes, Crioceris, Zeugophora, Auchenia, and Megacelis. The species of the genus Crioceris have the posterior femora of the same thickness as the others: the antennæ gradually enlarged towards the apex, the joints of which are scarcely longer than broad; the eyes are emarginated on the inner side: the thorax is narrower than the elytra, short, and usually of a somewhat cylindrical form: the elytra are elongate. About eight species of this genus have been found in England, of which the most common is the Crioceris Asparagi, sometimes called the Asparagus Beetle, which is nearly a quarter of an inch in length, and of a blue-black colour; the thorax is red with two black spots; the elytra are yellow, with the suture, two transverse bands, and a spot at the base, black. This pretty little beetle is found in abundance in the south of England, on asparagus plants: the larvae are of a greenish hue, resemble little masses of jelly, and inhabit the same situations as the perfect insect; they subsist upon the leaves and soft part of the stalk of the asparagus plant. With respect to criticism and to the art of disputation, as well as the ordinary disputes and differences of life, the following remark may be worth consideration as tending to unite criticism, as a species of wisdom, with one of the greatest virtues, toleration. Every subject or object ought to be considered in two different ways: first, abstractedly or as regards itself; secondly, in connexion with other subrelative point of view. A Hottentot beauty, regarded only in the first mode, might safely be pronounced ugly; but were the human race entirely composed of Hottentots, such a beauty would be considered a master-piece of creation, notwithstanding the resemblance of her physiognomy to that of a monkey. The writings of the antient philosophers are of comparatively little value in themselves, but considered relatively, they are admirable and everlasting monuments of the human intellect of those remote ages. An intelligent critic therefore never forgets both modes of viewing the subject under investigation; and thus criticism is opposed to controversy. First principles, in which both author and critic coincide, being agreed on, the matter only has to be examined: thus in a criticism of Oken s Natural Philosophy, the premiss to be granted would be that in the beginning nothing existed but æther, out of which by degrees everything arose. In poetry it is requisite to ascertain the object of the author, whether the poet meant, as with Crabbe, Goethe, &c., to portray human life under this or that aspect; or, as with Schiller, &c., to delineate the ideal. Criticism thus understood will not degenerate into a mere captious habit of finding fault, nor will dispu tation assume the appearance of a quarrel. In philosophy the word 'critical' signifies that method of reasoning which is opposed to dogmatism.' A dogmatist maintains an assertion without proof; the critical inquirer not only endeavours to prove every assertion which he makes, considering fully both sides of the subject, but also commences his investigation by an analysis of the powers of the human mind, in order to ascertain what can be known and what cannot. Upon this principle Kant's celebrated work, Kritik der Reinen Vernunft,' or Criticism of pure Reason,' was written. Criticism must not be confounded with scepticism, the object of which is to show that truth is not attainable by philosophical inquiry. CROATIA, called by the natives HORVATH ORSZAG,' comprising several countries and districts in the southern part of Austria, has the title of kingdom, though the greater part is now incorporated with that of Hungary, of which it forms the south-western division. It lies between 44° 5′ and 46° 25′ N. lat., and 14° 20' and 17° 25′ E. long., and extends in a north-easterly direction from the shores of the Adriatic to the banks of the Drave (Drau) and Save. It is bounded on the north by Lower Styria and Hungary; on the east by Sclavonia; on the south by Turkish Croatia and Dalmatia; and on the west by the kingdom of Illyria. Croatia has the following subdivisions: Capital. [Croatia) 385,000 Agram (capital of 126,000 Warasdin CRI'SIA. [CELLARIÆA, vol. vi., p. 404.] CRISTA CEA. [CEPHALOPODA, vol. vi., p. 426.] CRISTELLA'RIA. [CEPHALOPODA, vol. vi., p. 426.] Square InhaCRITICISM. Literary and scientific controversies, like miles. bitants. the vexatious disputes of common life, arise more frequently N.W. The county of Agram...... 873 from verbal than real causes. The county of Warasdin These quarrels generally N.E. The county of Creutz ..... originate in words which, notwithstanding the sameness W. The litorale of Hungary... 130 of their sounds, have different significations and different The military frontiers.....5754 The generalate of Warasdin 1415 values; or perhaps, to speak more correctly, are conceived in different senses by the disputants. This arises from the 9524 N s. E. ... 718 634 77,600 Creutz 27,600 Fiume 459,700 Zeugg 111,000 1,186,900 Bellovar Croatia contains 7 towns, 16 market-towns, 1680 villages, and 7 prædia. The surface of Croatia is extremely irregular. It is traversed by chains of mountains, chiefly continuations of the Julian Alps, is intersected with deep valleys, and also contains extensive plains. The loftiest ridge, that of the Velebich, is in the southern part of the country, and extends for about 70 miles from Zermanya to Zeugg. Its general altitude is from 3000 to 4000 feet: its highest summits are the Badany, which is 4164 feet, and the Velika Viszochicza, 4338 feet above the level of the sea. The second chain, called the Capella, likewise commences in the south-western extremity of Croatia, and runs towards the north-east to the banks of the Unna: it exceeds the Velebich both in breadth and length, being above 80 miles long; and the elevation of its highest summit, the Plessioicza, on which the snow scarcely melts throughout the year, is more than 5550 feet above the sea. The mountains which compose the chain from the banks of the Kulpa to those of the Unna are much lower and less rugged. To wards the Save they gradually decline, and at its confluence with the Kulpa terminate in a plain. The greater part of these mountains consist of limestone, with various kinds of beautiful marble, porphyry, serpentine, &c. which furnish excellent materials for building; all the bridges and parapets of the great Josephine Road,' and most of the houses at Fiume, Zeugg, and Porto Ré, are constructed with this stone. The most common is a blackish grey marble, which emits a fetid smell on being rubbed, and when portions fall down from the mountains, diffuses a highly offensive odour throughout the neighbour hood. Many of the valleys, especially on the southern ridge, are entirely closed, and the streams which traverse them, not having a vent, find their way to different rivers by subterraneous channels, and often inundate the surrounding country. Among the most striking of these valleys are those of Korbavia and Licca, which are inhabited by a half-savage race, and abound in picturesque waterfalls. The Szluinchicza forms above forty beautiful cascades. Besides its two boundary rivers, the Drave and the Unna, Croatia is watered by many other rivers and streams, of which the Save only does not rise within its confines; the others take their rise in the country; such as the Kulpa, Longa, Krapina, Korana, Odra, &c. nearly all of which flow into the Drave or Save, except the Zermanya and Fiumara (or Reka), which fall into the Adriatic. Croatia contains many mineral springs, which possess medicinal properties. It is however poor in metallic ores, except iron-stone, which occurs in great abundance in several places. Copper has been obtained for centuries near Czambor, the mines of which yield annually about 400 tons. Coal is found in various parts; as well as sulphur, lead, salt, &c.; occasionally also silver; gold is obtained from the sand of several of the rivers, especially the Drave. The climate of Croatia varies considerably in different parts. The southern and more sheltered districts, such as those of Zermanya, and the narrow tract between the mountains and the coast about the gulf of Guarnero, which are defended against the north wind, enjoy an Italian climate, and produce the olive, fig, grape and almond. Here the vintage takes place in August, but in the western highlands beyond the Kulpa, the harvest does not commence till the end of August or beginning of September, when the snow begins to fall, which does not melt till April or May. On the higher summits it frequently lies the whole summer. But even in the southern regions, the winter is very severe, owing to the vicinity of the high Alps, The scourge of this country is the wind called Bora or Bura, which blows from the north or north-east, and generally sets in between seven and eight A. M. and ceases at four or five P. M. It is accompanied by excessive cold, and blows with such violence that large stones are carried by it to a great distance. Malte Brun says that the district of Rudaicza is rendered uninhabitable and nearly inaccessible by it. There is also a very hot south or south-west wind, called Jug, which blows from Africa, but does not set in at any stated times. The eastern and northern parts of Croatia, which are more level and less mountainous, and especially the parts watered by the Drave and Save, are very fertile in various kinds of grain, particularly barley, maize, and oats; the soil is also very favourable for fruits, among which the Damas No. 487. I cene plum furnishes the favourite drink of the Croatians Croatia has immense forests of oak and beech. Flax, hemp, and tobacco are only grown in sufficient quantity for domestic consumption. Croatia produces about 3,700,000 metzen of various sorts of grain, and about 400,000 kilderkins of wine. Horticulture and gardening are very little attended to; the same may be said of the rearing of horned cattle and horses, except in the counties of Agram and Warasdin. The flocks are neither numerous nor of choice breeds; but an establishment for the improvement of sheep of superior wool has lately been formed at Merkopaly, which promises to be successful. Considerable herds of swine are reared, for which the forests afford plenty of food. There are likewise extensive fisheries; and much wax and honey are produced. Timber is obtained in abundance, as the whole country abounds in forests. Only a very small portion of the inhabitants are engaged in manufactures, and these are of the rudest description. As Croatia does not raise more produce than suffices for its inhabitants, its commerce is chiefly confined to the transit trade. The three great roads for trade are the Louisa, from Fiume to Carstadt, and the Caroline and Josephine, leading into Illyria and Bosnia. The inhabitants profess the Roman Catholic and GrecoCatholic religions. The adherents of the former are under the bishop of Agram, one of the richest prelates of Hungary, and those of the latter have their own bishop, who resides at Creutz. The public system of education is that of the national schools, which are divided into elementary, head, and normal. There are two gymnasia at Agram and Warasdin, and a superior academy or college at Agram, which has also a seminary of theology for candidates for orders in the Roman Catholic and Greco-Catholic church. The Croatian language is a dialect of the Sclavonian; it nearly resembles the Bohemian and Moravian, and of all the Illyrian languages bears the greatest affinity to the Polish. The antient inhabitants of Croatia were the Pannonians. after the conquest of whom by Augustus it became a pro vince of Illyria. The Goths took possession of it A. D. 489 then the Avares or Abares, and in 640 the Croatians, a tribe of the Wends from Bohemia, who were antiently called Horwather, Hrowathes or Chrobates, settled in it, and gave their name to the country. They subdued the former inhabitants of Illyria and Noricum, and being reinforced by bodies of their countrymen, they founded the Duchies (or in their idiom Zupanies) of Carinthia, Friuli, Liburnia, or Croatia Proper, Jadra in Dalmatia, Sclavonia, &c. These small states submitted to Charlemagne, but they generally allied themselves with the Greek emperors, although they continued to acknowledge the supremacy of the church of Rome. Their first Archizupan of whom history makes mention, is Crescimer, who lived in the tenth century, and whose son Dircislav I. took the title of king of Croatia, which then extended over the western part of Dalmatia and Bosnia; its capital, called Biograd, appears to have been situated on the shores of the Adriatic, at the place called by the Venetians Zara Vecchia, although Büsching and some other authorities fix upon the modern Biograd, Belligrad, or Bielgrad, on the small river Pliva, as its site. Towards the year 1100 Croatia was incorporated with Hungary. After the middle of the fifteenth century it suffered greatly from the incursions of the Turks, but the Croatians being a warlike people, ravaged in their turn the Ottoman territories, and returned to their villages laden with spoils. Croatia was afterwards annexed to the Austrian empire, and, together with Sclavonia, Dalmatia, and some parts of Hungary, was governed by a special board at Vienna under the common title of States of Illyria. More recently Croatia has preserved the name only of a kingdom, Agram, Warasdin, and the Litorale having been incorporated with Hungary, and the Generalats of Creutz and St. George with the Military Frontiers, having each of them its distinct military jurisdiction. Although brought into more regular discipline by the Austrian government, the Croatians still retain their taste for war. Those who live at some distance from the Turkish frontiers have adopted more industrious habits. Their untutored state is accompanied by many traits of virtue and generosity, and great fidelity to their sovereign. Notwithstanding their revolt against Austria in 1755, on account of certain innovations, their despair was indescribable when they found themselves united to France in 1809. Their dwellings are merely large barns, without either win dow or chimney, where the family and the swine lodge under the same roof. CROCKET, an ornament of very frequent use in Gothic architecture. It consists of leafy buds growing out of the angular sides of pinnacles and the label moulding of windows and doors. There are no examples of crockets in the Norman or arched style. In the early pointed style they are meagre, as in Lincoln cathedral, but afterwards they become fuller, and a more natural representation of a bursting bud. The later examples however are larger, and have not so much the appearance of nature. CROCODILE, CROCODILE-TRIBE, CROCODI'LIDÆ, a family of Saurians, comprising the largest living forms of that order of reptiles. Duméril and others distinguish the family by the appellation of Aspidiot (shielded) Saurians; while many modern zoologists have considered them as forming a particular order. They form the Lorirata of Merrein and Fitzinger, and the Emydosaurians of De Blainville. Cuvier in his Règne Animal' describes the peculiarities of the family. The tail is flattened at the sides; there are five anterior and four posterior toes, of which the three inner ones only on each foot are armed with claws; all the toes are more or less joined by membranes. There is a single row of pointed teeth in each jaw, and the tongue is fleshy, flat, and attached very nearly up to the edges, which made the antients believe that the crocodile wanted that organ. The intromittent male organ of generation is single; the opening of the vent longitudinal. The back and tail are covered by great and strong squared scales, elevated into a ridge on their middle. There is a deeply dentilated erest on the tail, at the base of which the crest becomes double. The scales of the belly are squared, delicate, and smooth. The nostrils are opened at the end of the muzzle by two small crescent-shaped slits, closed by sinall valves, and lead by a long and straight canal pierced in the palatine and sphenoidal bones to the bottom of the back part of the mouth. As the lower jaw is prolonged behind the skull, the upper jaw has the appearance of mobility, and so the antients wrote; but it only moves in concert with the whole of the head. The external ear is shut at will by means of two fleshy lips; and the eye has three lids. Under the throat are two small glandular orifices, whence issues a musky secretion. the tooth destined to replace it, and which is to be of greater volume; so that, in crocodiles, the number of the teeth does not vary with age as in many other animals. [Tooth of crocodile, showing the incipient absorption of the hollow basal cone from the effect of the rising pressure of the advancing tooth.] Great solidity and strength are the results of this double gomphosis, and the alveoli are moreover directed obliquely from front to rear. The bony edges of the jaws whence these insulated teeth spring, are covered by a kind of gum. Another peculiarity of admirable adaptation to the necessities of the animal, may be observed in the interior of the mouth of the crocodiles. Their palatine vault is nearly flat, and is not pierced by the extremities of the nasal fossa, as in the majority of other reptiles. The posterior nasal apertures open in the pharynx behind the velum palati, which is sufficiently long to overspread that portion of the roof which is in front of the orifice of the glottis. They are probably the only reptiles which have a true pharynx, that is to say, a vestibule common to the posterior nostrils, the mouth, the larynx, and the œsophagus. This conformation, joined to the muscular structure of the tongue, and a peculiar expansion of the body of the os hyoides, produces a kind of cartilaginous disk or valve, which can be raised and applied to the velum palati above, so as to protect the glottis, to which it serves the office performed by the epiglottis in mammifers, while it confers on the reptile a peculiar power of deglutition and respiration, of the greatest consequence to its economy when it is below the surface of the water and has seized its prey in that situation; or, when the muzzle alone is above the surface, in carrying on respiration. The following is a summary of the The vertebra of the neck bear upon each other by means of small false ribs, which render lateral motion difficult. Crocodiles, therefore, change their direction not without trouble, and they may be easily avoided by doubling, and escaping while they are employed in the laborious operation of turning round. They have no true clavicles*; but their coracoid apophyses are attached to the sternum, as in all the other Saurians. Besides the ordinary and the false Character of the Family-Body depressed, elongated, ribs, there are a set which protect the abdomen without protected on the back with solid and carinated scutcheons reaching up to the spine, and which appear to be produced or shields; tail longer than the trunk, compressed laterally, by the ossification of the tendinous portions of the recti annulated, and furnished with crests above; feet four, short, muscles. Their lungs are not sunk in the abdomen like the toes of the posterior feet united by a natatory memthose of other reptiles, and there are fleshy fibres adhering brane: each foot with three claws only; head depressed, to the part of the peritoneum which covers the liver, and elongated into a muzzle, in front of which are the nostrils which present the appearance of a diaphragm, which, approximated upon a fleshy tubercle, furnished with movejoined to their trilocular heart, where the blood which able suckers (soupapes): gape of the mouth extending becomes from the lungs is not mingled with that venous por-yond the skull; tongue fleshy, adherent, entire, not protion of it which comes from the body so completely as it is tractile; teeth conical, simple, hollowed at the base or in the other reptiles, slightly approximates the crocodiles to towards the root, unequal in length, but placed in a single the warm-blooded quadrupeds. The auditory bone (caisse) row; male genital organ simple, having its exit from the and the pterygoid apophyses are fixed to the skull as in the cloaca, which opens longitudinally. (Duméril et Bibron.) tortoises. The eggs of the crocodiles are hard, and as large as those of the goose; and these reptiles are considered to be animals in which the extremes of size, taking that of the newly-hatched young and that of the full grown adult as the most remote points, present the widest difference. The females guard their eggs, and when they are hatched take care of the young during some months. (Cuvier.) The dentition of the crocodiles is peculiar. The teeth are numerous, large, of unequal length, conical, hollow at the base, disposed in a single row, and planted in the thickness of the edges of the superior and inferior maxillary bones, in separate cavities which may be considered as true alveoli. These teeth are hollowed at the base in such a manner as to serve for the case or sheath of the germ of Cuvier observes, that they are the only Saurians which want the clavi Lalar bones. But they are of a different shape, oblong rather than oval. From the first cut in the following page a general knowledge of the osseous structure of the crocodiles may be derived; and, from the second, a fair notion of the external appearance of the adult reptile. Geographical Distribution.—Of the three genera or subgenera which compose the family, no living species is found in Europe,* nor has any been yet detected in Australasia. The first of these genera, Alligator, is peculiar to America ; the second, Crocodilus, is distributed in the Old and New World; and the third, Gavialis, seems to be limited to the Ganges, and the other large rivers of Continental India. Asia, besides the Gavial of the Ganges, produces at least three true crocodiles, viz., Crocodilus vulgaris, Crocodilus Galeatus, (C. Siamensis, Schneid.; C. Siamensis, Gray?) and Crocodilus biporcatus. Siam seems to be the prin cipal, if not the only locality, where the first of these has Malte Brun (Syst. Geog., vol. viii., p. 193) states, that a crocodile is still preserved at Lyons that was taken from the Rhone about two centuries ago but as Mr. Lyell observes, no particulars are given [Outline of the head and anterior parts of Alligator Lucius seen from above.] been found; while the other two appear to be natives of those rivers which have their mouths in the Indian Ocean and the Ganges. Africa, where neither Caimans (Alligator) nor Gavials have yet been discovered, is the native country of the Crocodile à bouclier, and Crocodilus vulgaris: it may also be the locality of Crocodilus planirostris of Graves and of Gray (Crocodilus Gravesii, Bory de St. Vincent); and Crocodilus intermedius of Graves and of Gray (Crocodilus Journei, Bory de St. Vincent), though their geographical position does not seem to be determined: these may perhaps come from the coast of Guinea. The only part of Africa whence the Crocodile à bouclier has been received is Sierra Leone; while Crocodilus vulgaris seems to be spread over the whole of Africa, and is also an inhabitant of Madagascar. Numbers have been taken in the Nile, and one in the river Senegal. (Duméril et Bibron.) America is most fruitful in crocodiles, and possesses more species than Asia and Africa put together, seven in all, viz., five species of Alligator, and two of Crocodilus. True crocodiles have never been detected on the Continent. Crocodilus acutus has been found at Martinique and St. Domingo, and The northern part of Crocodilus rhombifer at Cuba. America is inhabited by one species only, Alligator Lucius, while four species, viz., Alligator palpebrosus, Alligator Sclerops, Alligator punctulatus, and Alligator cynocephalus, inhabit the south. (Duméril et Bibron.) Y 2 The late Mr. Bennett, in September, 1835, called the attention of a meeting of the Zoological Society to a specimen of a crocodile which he had regarded, while it was living in the Society's Gardens, as referrible, on account of the length of its head and the extent of the shielding at the back of its neck, to Crocodilus cataphractus, Cuv. A more close examination of it, however, subsequently to its death, had shown him that its head was still more prolonged than that part is described to be in Crocodilus cataphractus, its length being to its breadth as 3 to 1, instead of as 2 to 1: it was also deficient of the second post-occipital series of four small plates noticed as occurring in Crocodilus cata phractus, and he characterized the species under the name of Crocodilus leptorhynchus. It came from Fernando Po, and Mr. Bennett observed, that notwithstanding the approximation of this species to the Gavials by the elongation of its jaws, and by the extent to which the back of the neck is protected by bony plates, it has all the essential generic characters by which the crocodiles are distinguished. The two posterior pairs of nuchal plates were much smaller than the two pairs anterior to them. (Zool. Proc., 1835, part 3.) Habits, Reproduction, &c.-Cuvier says that the Crocodilida inhabit fresh water, that they cannot swallow while in the water, but drown their prey, and place it in some nook under water, where they suffer it to putrefy before they eat it. This account seems to require some modification. Mr. Lyell, in his 'Principles of Geology,' observes that the larger Gangetic species descends beyond the brackish water of the Delta into the sea and other instances are recorded of the true crocodiles (but not of the alligators) frequenting the mouths of large rivers, and even passing between different islands at considerable distances from each other. (ALLIGATOR, vol. i. p. 350.) This should be remembered by geologists. Then, as to their inability to swallow while in the water, those authors who describe their collective fishing expeditions, entirely contradict it. True it is, according to them, that the alligators, after they have seized the fish from below, rise to the surface and toss the fish into the air to get rid of the water which they have taken in with it, catching it again in its descent: but it is clear that they swallow it without resorting to the land, though they go thither for the purpose of devouring those land animals which they have succeeded in capturing and drowning, after they have undergone some degree of decomposition. This mode of proceeding, and a general view of the habits of the Caimans, which may be taken as an example of those of the whole tribe, is stated in the article ALLIGATOR, in the first volume. We here subjoin some information from an eye-witness, M. Ricord, as to the mode of reproduction of the crocodiles of St. Domingo, and transmitted by him to MM. Duméril and Bibron. L'accouplement m' a semblé se faire de préférence au bord de l'eau; la femelle se place sur le coté, et tombe quelquefois sur le dos, ainsi que j'ai pu le voir une fois; l'intromission dure assez long temps, puis ils se plongent tous deux dans l'eau.' The laying of the eggs takes place in April and May, and the number amounts from twenty to twenty-five, more or less, laid at many times. The female deposits them in the sand with little care, and scarcely covers them. I have met with them in the lime which the masons had left on the bank of the river. If I have reckoned right, the young come forth on the fortieth day, when the temperature is not too cold. At their birth they are five or six inches in length. They are hatched alone, and as they can do without nourishment while coming out of the egg, the female is in no haste to bring it to them: she leads them towards the water and into the mud, and disgorges for them half-digested food. The male takes no account of them.' The young preserve for some time the umbilical mark or cicatrice on the abdomen, whereby the vitellus was absorbed. Position in the animal series. The Crocodilidae are generally considered as forming a natural passage from the Saurians to the Chelonians, the last genera of which, in certain points of their conformation and habits, approximate nearly to the family under consideration. Genera. Alligator. (See the Article, vol. i. p. 349.) Crocodilus. Muzzle oblong and depressed; teeth unequal, the front teeth of the lower jaw at a certain age pierce the upper jaw, the fourth on each side, which are the longest, pass into lateral notches of the upper jaw when the mouth is shut, and are not lodged in hollows. The skull behind the eyes has two large oval holes. The hind feet have a dentilated crest on their external border; the intervals of the toes, the external ones at least, are entirely palmated. Nothing, observe MM. Duméril and Bibron, better distinguishes the Crocodiles from the Alligators than the narrowness of the muzzle behind the nostrils, a narrowness which is produced by the deep notch on each side of the upper mandible serving for the passage of the fourth lower tooth. The Gavials, it is true, have similar notches, which are destined for the same purpose. But at the extremity of the muzzle they have also two others for the reception of the front lower teeth; in lieu of this the front lower teeth in the Crocodiles pierce the upper mandible through and through. The horizontal contour of the head of the Crocodiles represents, in general, the figure of an isosceles triangle more or less elongated, depending upon the size of the jaws; but in no case is the muzzle wider than that of the Caimans, nor more slender than that of the Gavials. The Crocodiles have, like the former, their jaws festooned, as it were, on their sides, and their teeth unequal, but in less number, because they have never been observed with more than nineteen on each side above, and sixteen on each side below. The cranial holes are larger than they are in the Caimans, and less wide than they are in the Gavials. Their diameter is always found to be less than that of the orbits. The nasal aperture is oval or subcircular. There is a very small bony plate in the thickness of the upper eyelid. a, skull of Crocodilus vulgaris, seen from above; b, skull of Alligator Lucius, same view; c, profile of skull of Crocodilus vulgaris; d, profile of skull of Alligator Lucius. The same remark, as to the length of the head in proportion to its width at the three principal epochs of life, applies to the Caimans as well as to the Crocodiles. Thus, at the earliest age, it is only a little longer than it is wide; in middle age, its length is about double its width; afterwards, and when the animal may be considered adult, its longitudinal diameter is only three quarters, or even one half greater than its transversal diameter. The head of the Crocodiles, instead of possessing the smoothness or rugosity which marks the young and middle aged, generally becomes very |