Identifier: halfhourswithfis00hold (find matches)Title: Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birdsYear: 1906 (1900s)Authors: Holder, Charles Frederick, 1851-1915Subjects: ZoologyPublisher: New York, American Book CoContributing Library: The Library of CongressDigitizing Sponsor: The Library of CongressView Book Page: Book ViewerAbout This Book: Catalog EntryView All Images: All Images From BookClick here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.Text Appearing Before Image:Fig. 91. —The Gavial. 126 THE CROCODILES water by the crocodiles tail, while men swimming streamsat night are sometimes victims of the man-eaters. I onceobserved the method of attack of a large alligator, whichillustrates that of the entire group. A man approached itfrom behind, when, without warning, the animal struck hima violent blow just below the knees, hurling him in theText Appearing After Image:Fig. 92. — Open Mouth of a Crocodile. direction of the wide-open mouth, which was turned tomeet him. The man was not bitten, but it is easy to con-ceive that he might have been knocked into the animalsmouth. The crocodile lays eggs which it deposits on the moistbanks of swamps, where they are often hunted (Fig. 93).An interesting bird is associated with the crocodile of theNile. It is called the Nile bird, and performs a valuableservice to the great animal; that is, ridding its mouth ofthe flies which infest it. When the crocodile comes out THE CROCODILES 127 to feed, its unsavory prey attracts millions of flies, andafter the feast the animal opens wide its jaws, whichappear as in Figure 92. The little bird, Pluvianw cegyp-tic us, hops into the dreadful mouth which spares no othercreature, and begins to devour the troublesome insects,rarely or never being molested by the crocodile. The West Indian crocodiles, or caymans, have beenknown to attack people, but they are by no means sofeNote About ImagesPlease note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.