Ah les crocodiles!

Gotta say:  I like this guy's  exquisitely clear pronunciation of what is, after "l'Amour de Moi," my favourite song in French.  Only it seems to me there's a stanza missing...

Actually there are a couple of stanzas missing.  After Il fredonnait une marche militaire, etc., and (another repetition of) the refrain, should come:

                  Il s'agitait sa grand' queu à l'arrière
                  Comm' s'il était d'avance triomphant.
                  Les animaux devant sa mine altière
                  Dans les forêts s'en fuyaient tout tremblants.


Then the last stanza, before (the final repetition of) the refrain, should be:

                  Et tout rempli d'une crainte salutaire
                  S'en retourna vers ses petits enfants.
                  Notre éléphant d'une trompe plus fière
                  Voulut alors accompagner ce chant.

I grant, or concede, that neither of the putatively missing stanzas is essential to the swift narrative sense of the poem, and that the latter (of the two) is positively defective.  [Actually, both stanzas are fautifs--You just can't rhyme "triomphant" (singular) with "tremblants" (plural); nor, come to think of it, "enfants" (plural) with "chant" (singular).]  Nonetheless, the French child in me is much affected by the beasts trembling in the forest at the intimidating display of crocodile tail; while, as an elephant, I should miss sorely the invitation in the last stanza to blow my trumpet/trunk in triumph.  Perhaps we could, however, forget the iron rules of French poetry for the sake of just this one Comptine.  Or, if we could never do that, we might always add to it, after we sing it, a little leçon in good French prose explaining what faults we've just committed and promising never to commit them again.