The New International Encyclopædia/Mugger

MUGGER. This, the common 'marsh-crocodile' of India and the Malay Islands (Crocodilus palustris), is not often more than 12 feet in length. Its head is rough, with a thick and rather broad snout, and each jaw contains 19 teeth on each side. It inhabits rivers, ponds, tanks, and marshes, and goes ashore only when it is obliged to move into some new water by the drying up of its pond, or wishes to bury its eggs in the sand. In extreme drought, however, it buries itself in the mud and remains dormant until the coming of the rains. This is the crocodile which is venerated by the Hindus and is kept in a half-domesticated condition in certain ponds, attended by fakirs, who worship in a neighboring temple of their cult. Consult: the writings of Indian naturalists, especially Adams, Wanderings of a Naturalist in India (Edinburgh, 1867); Tennent, Natural History of Ceylon (London, 1861); Hornaday, Two Years in the Jungle (New York, 1885).