Aiton’s Encyclopedia
A Practical Reference Library in Five Volumes — keyed from the public-domain original
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Gavial

ga'vi-al, a long-bodied, longnosed crocodile of India, with a hundred even teeth, and fleshy, horn-like nostrils at the end of the upper jaw. The gavial attains a length of ten to twenty feet, and is an unpleasant animal to look upon; but it is not dangerous to man or beast. It lives in the fresh waters of Borneo and India. It feeds on fish. It is to be distinguished from the man-eating crocodile. The stout snout of the Mississippi alligator is about twice as long as it is wide. The slender snout of the gavial is several times as long as it is wide. See Crocodile

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