performs to the Crocodile. 69 



greatest eagerness, and renders him a very great service ; for 

 every time that the crocodile comes to the land to sleep, and 

 when he lies stretched out with his jaws open, the Trochilos 

 enters and establishes itself in his mouth, and frees him from 

 the bdella which he finds there. * 



" The crocodile is grateful, and never does any harm to the 

 little bird who performs for him this good office.'" 



This passage is one of those which has most exercised the 

 sagacity of commentators. Some have looked upon it mere- 

 ly as a pleasant story, while others, in order to justify Hero- 

 dotus, have pushed their zeal so far as to create an animal 

 which could impose upon the crocodile, and be capable of all 

 the actions attributed to the Trochilos. 



M. Geoffroy St-Hilaire proposes to show that Herodotus 

 has been defended as awkwardly as he has been attacked un- 

 justly. 



During his long residence in Egypt M. Geoffroy had re- 

 peated occasion to ascertain that the story of Herodotus, 

 though correct in substance, was inexact only in some par- 

 ticular details. It is perfectly true that a little bird does ex- 

 ist, which flies incessantly from place to place, searching every- 

 where, even in the crocodile's mouth, for the insects which form 

 the principal part of its nourishment. This bird is seen every- 

 where on the banks of the Nile ; and Geoffroy having succeed- 

 ed in procuring one, recognized it as belonging to a species al- 

 ready described by Hasselquist, under the name of Charadri- 

 us JEgyptius. There is in France a bird very like it, if not 

 precisely the same, namely, the small ringed plover. 



With his slender beak this bird can take nothing but the 

 smallest insects, the spawn of fish, or those molecular debris, 

 those fragments of animal detrittis which the action of the wa- 

 ters throws incessantly upon the banks. 



* The following is the original of the passage in Herodotus : — 



"Are dfi wv h vdan dfairav miev/Mvov, ro 0roy.cc evdodev <pogUi nav /ueffrbv 

 ^ds\Xsm. ra fih dri aKXcc ogvsa %cd ^Tjg/a <pevyei [uv. o ds rgo%tXog eU 

 grjvcjTov 01 lari 3 are uxpeXeoyevu wgog avrou. eVsav yu% eg rr\v ytfy exGrj, ex. 

 rou vdccrog, 6 xgoxoduXog, %a\ eiretra %avr\ } ('iwfae yag rovro, ug evfaav, 

 ftoieuv irgbg rbv Zepvgov) evQaura 6 rzoyfhbg effdvvwv eg rb 6ro/ia avrov, xa- 

 rctnivu rag (3dl\Xag' 6 de, q<pe\eb(jjevog, rderai, xai ovdev ffiverai rbv 

 rgoyj"kw. 



