142 THE CROCODILE AND LITTLE RING-PLOVER. 



" Arrived in my turn on the shores of Egypt, and having 

 observed there, after the lapse of so many centuries, every 

 action under the different appearances in which life is displayed 

 in this country, I have found the passage, which is the object 

 of the present remarks, true in its general meaning, but inaccu- 

 rate in some particulars. We shall see from the character of 

 these inaccuracies, which I cannot refrain from remarking 

 upon, that they lead us to the idea, that in this instance He- 

 rodotus has not observed for himself, but that he has drawn 

 up his account from hearsay. 



" Herodotus uses the word hdella — an animal that sucks — 

 to describe these tormentors of the crocodile. This has be- 

 come the Greek name for a leech, and is so translated gene- 

 rally, and Herodotus seems to have intended it to have that 

 meaning. The true leech, (Hirudo, L.,) is not found in the run- 

 ning waters of the Nile, but is met with in standing waters, 

 generally, in Egypt. These animals were probably gnats or 

 muskitoes, which he mentions under the name conops, and 

 which are now the insects that infest the crocodile. " (Having 

 decided that the trochilus is the same species as that named by 

 Hasselquist Charadrius JEgi/ptius, — which is very much like 

 the petit pluvier a collier of France, if indeed it be not the 

 same bird, — the author proceeds :) " I have paid great attention 

 to the habits of the little plover : and having seen it pursue its 

 prey, about which it is very dainty, even into the mouth of the 

 crocodile, I am convinced about the facts, the knowledge of the 

 true determination of which I so anxiously wished for. But 

 the fact, that which I first noticed, is, that it is not for the 

 purpose of cleansing his teeth, (for which the hind feet of the 

 crocodile can and do suffice,) that the trochilus, or little plo- 

 ver, interests and busies itself about him. Now, what I have 

 learnt both from my own experience and from the accounts 

 of the fishermen, is, that every crocodile, when it comes up to 

 repose itself upon the sand, is immediately attacked by a 

 swarm of gnats, which fly about in immense numbers in the 

 neighbourhood and over the surface of the water. His mouth 

 is not so hermetically closed, as to prevent these insects from 

 effecting an entrance into it; they introduce themselves, and 

 arrange themselves there in such numbers, that the interior 

 surface of the whole palate, which is of a bright yellow through- 

 out, is covered with a coating of blackish brown, which is 

 owing to the gnats arranged side by side. All these sucking 

 insects thrust their trunks into the orifices of the glands, 

 which are very numerous in the mouth of the crocodile. 



"The following circumstance is well worthy of remark. 

 There is at St. Domingo a crocodile which so much resembles 

 that of Egypt, that I have had great difficulty in detecting the 



