The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1872-02-10
FOR THE BOYS AND GIRLS,
The Crocodile and Its Little Friend.

The Crocodile and Its Little Friend
By this time some of our bows and
girls have found out the true story
shown III our picture of last week. :
The Friendly Visit, and Others are
quite ready for us to fulfill our promise
to tell them abous it
Very well, all you little folks who
have not yet found out about the tiny
visitor, you shall have your silent aues-
tions answered.
Why does the crocodile in the picture
hold his mouth open in that funny way ?
Why, because this animal, which
you must know is amphibious, that is,
he lives both on land and in the water,
has way of resting himself upon the
shore, and whenever he does so. espec
sally after spending many hou1 in the
water, he turns toward the quarter
from which the breeze comes, an
opens his great mouth as vide as he
can. 1T would look like vawn if the
Jaws would but soon come together
again, never mind how slowly. But
no. It's Just one of the creatures wavs
Of cooling his mouth and taking in
fresh air
What makes the little bird go in ?
Well, to tell the truth, the little fel-
low IS hungry. He hops IN, very much
as you would hop into great field all
sprlnkled over with candies.
Yes, but what can he fluid to eat in
side of crocodile, you say
Oh ! quite good deal, we assure
you. In the first place, the crocodile
often opens and shuts his mouth while
III the water. and then certain little
greedy gnats enter and fasten them
selves upon the soft flesh lining the up
per and lower jaw. So many of these
little tormentoss collect there upon the
inside that at last the surface. instead
OF beng of bright yellow color as it
should be, is hidden under a coat of
blacklsh brown. Now you see the croc-
odlle can't very well relieve himself of
these pests, because IT IS not his nature
70 put his fist or claw into his mouth.
as babies do, and not having any ton
que to work about among them he has
Just TO grin and bear it, But at
fast, as he lies open -mouthed on the
shore, this welcome bird comes along.
a understanding, shy little fellow.
called by some Troehilus, who for
tunately Is very fond of gnats and all
sorts OF insects. He is closely related
to the Plover family, and he has grand
Latin name, ChoradntnS 1Etgy12t1tS, and
fhe Arabs call him ,SuQsuQ, or Iek-tdk
1.-THE lapper,) on account of the inces-
SAINT noise of its bill on the sand when
looking for insects. But he doesn't
think of such trities now He only sees
great big palace, the floor and the
walls OF which are covered with deli
clous food. Even the roof overhead is
studded thick with it. He has never
read about the crocodile, and so he has
40 thought of what dangerous place
tins great palace may be In he jumps
and begins to eat, taking great care,
Gse q polite visitor, not to iniure the
floor nor the walls with his sharp little
bill. Meantime the crocodile is quite
delighted. So far from wishing to
hurt his little friend, he would like to
shake hands with him on the spot. But
shat wouldn't be altogether convent mt.
At last the Plover, or whatever he is
called :" for short" has had enough.
and with funny little bob of his head
meant no doubt for a bow. he hops Oft.
quite resolved to call again some other
eime.
What happens then
Oh, nothing much. Perhaps the
crocodile may take a swim after this. or
tor his luncheon swallow q few hundred
little creatures living in the sea or he
may go further up on the shore and fall
victim himself to some of the native
African hunters. But if so. they will
have hard woke to kill him. He IS
very strong and fierce when attacked,
and his hide is SO tough and thick. that
an ordinary bullet fired at it, instead
OF going IN would Just be fattened
against it like thick wafer. If they
can shoot or stab him near the ewes.
OF Just where his legs Join the BODY,
they may conquer him
The full grown crocodile is a prodi-
glous creature, but he once came from
an egg hardly bigger than a goose's
egg, A child could have held him in
one hand then. But now he looks big
enough to swallow half a dozen chill
dren. He must have had dreadful
growing pans at some period of his
life, poor fellow +, What would Little
Red Riding Hood have said at such a
mouth We hope he has been good,
and never killed man or eaten a boy
or girl. Crocodiles are sometimes
guilty OF such acts.
There are three very strange facts
about the crocodile's mouth The first
IS, he has no tongue, that is, nothing
that you would call tongue; the sec
ond is, the hole in his throat looks so
small that you would think a big nut
would choke limits the smallest
throat for such great big mouth that
you can imagine; and the third is, that
he can hardly move his lower Jaw at all
He always lifts his upper Jaw when he
eats, and if any of our boys and girls
can do that they are very wonderful
children indeed. Tell us more, do YOU
say Not now, children for, you see,
here comes somebody else with other
things to say.
Captain Snarly,
Did you ever hear about Captain
Snarly
Who is he p asks my little man
IaE1 L..