Land Crocodile

LAND CROCODILE. This Animal is otherwise called Stinx; it lives partly in the Water, and partly upon the Land; it has four short slender Legs like a Lizard; its Snout is sharp, and its tail short and thin. It is covered with small Scales, disposed in very good order, of a Silver colour, in some places brownish, and particularly upon the Back of Gold colour. It always continues small, and is hatch’d in Egypt, near the Red Sea, in Lybia and the Indies. It has a streak all along its Body, from the Head to the Tail.

In Leviticus there is mention of a kind of Crocodile, in the Hebrew called Choled, Levit. xi. 27. 70 .חלד Κροκόδειλος χερσαῖος. לויתן Gen. xl. 19. Esth. vii. 10. Josh. viii. 29.which the Septuagint translate Land Crocodile, and is numbered among the unclean Animals. This Land Crocodile is a sort of Lizard, which feeds upon the sweetest Flowers it can find; this makes its Intrails to be very much valued for their agreeable smell. S. Jerom¹ says, the Syrians eat Crocodiles of this kind, which live upon the Land only. Some Interpreters translate the Hebrew Choled, Tortoise, or green Frog. S. Jerom has followed the Septuagint, and translated it Crocodile.

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