The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-12-15
The CrocodIIe and Its prov.

Seizing its prey, the crocodile, il there
is any struggle, browns it, and can man
age TO do so with its jaws stretched out
grasping its prey, for it has special
structural arrangement by which the
water is prevented from rushing down
its own throat and producing suffoca-
tion. First of all, before noticing this,
it must be stated that, unlike the Che
lonian reptiles, the crocodile can
breathe with the mouth open, and the
air rushes into their lungs when their
movable ribs expand for although the
skin is tough and armor-plated it is not
supported by bony expansion which
restricts the movements of the ribs.
They have o more or less rudimentary,
but still very useful, diaphragm. The
nostrils of the crocodile, situated near
the end of the snout, are capable of be-
ing closed at the will of the animal, and
they are connected in the snout with a
passage, which is limited below, not as
in the mammalia by palate-bones alone,
but also by pterygoids, and which open
far back in the throat. The roof of the
mouth has q membrane on it that ends
backward in fold which, taking away
the uvula, resembles that of man in
position. This upper fold rests on the
back of the tongue when the mouth is
closed and the air passes above and be-
hind it into the throat before reaching
the lungs. The tongue is large, habby
structure, incapable of protrusion, and
pas hyoid bone at its broad hinder
tart in the throat, and on it and the
hongue is lower flap of membrane
across the throat, and being
parallel at its free edge with the upper
fold.
When the crocodile drags a strug-
CLING animal into the water in its jaw
grip it shuts its nostrils, sinks down and
closes the back of its throat by muscu-
lar action, which brings the upper and
lower membrane folds together No
water can then pass into the throat.
After while the crocodile Just raises
the tip of its snout above water, opens
the valves of its nostrils and takes in
air, which passes along the passage
above the palate, behind the folds of
skin into the throat and thence into the
lungs. 1t tears its prey, if soft; should
it not be able to bolt it, it hides it away
until decomposition softens the tissues
and permits them to be swallowed. The
food passes along narrow, long gullet
and @sophagus to single globular
stomach, the mucous membrane of the
passage being folded and villous, but
that of the stomach is very thin. The
opening in the stomach for the intestine
is close to that for the esophagus, and
there is small pyloric Guide sac sepa-
rated off from the main cavity, through
which food must pass into the intestine.
The stomach has the mucous membrane
thin, and it is folded and placed in SER
pentine ridges; the cellular coat out
side it is thick and the more external
tunic, made of of fibers radiat-
ing from the center to the circumfer-
ence, issuing from a kind of disc of
membrane is very strong. This stomach
is not without its resemblance to the
gizzard of heron. The food gets
crushed and digested in part there and
passes into much-folded small intes-
tine, with peculiar glandular layer and
then into large gut with internal pro-
jections on its membrane.