Niloticus). The Florida crocodile
(
C. Americanus) is much less common than the alligator and
has longer jaws. The name is also sometimes applied to the
species of other related genera, as the gavial and the
alligator.
2. (Logic) A fallacious dilemma,
mythically supposed to have been first used by a
crocodile.
Crocodile bird (Zoöl.),
an
African plover (Pluvianus ægypticus) which alights
upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even
entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in
pursuit of files, etc.; -- called also Nile bird. It is
the trochilos of ancient writers. --
Crocodile tears,
false or affected tears;
hypocritical sorrow; -- derived from the fiction of old
travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey.||Croc`o*dil"i*a (-d?l"?-?), n. pl.
[NL., fr. L. crocodilus crocodile.] (Zoöl.)
An order of reptiles including the crocodiles, gavials,
alligators, and many extinct kinds.
Croc`o*dil"i*an (kr?k`?-d?l"?-a]/>n),
a. (Zoöl.) Like, or pertaining
to, the crocodile; characteristic of the crocodile. --
n. One of the Crocodilia.
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