62 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



as the lapwing entered the jaws of Egyptian crocodiles — 

 and that he had seen them do it ! 



This curious tissue of right and wrong was still fur- 

 ther embroidered by somebody's assertion that the 

 diminutive attendant's kindly purpose was "to pick from 

 the teeth a little insect" that greatly annoyed the huge 

 reptile. Even Tom Moore knew no better than to write 

 in Lalla Rookh of 



The puny bird that dares with pleasing hum 

 Within the crocodile's stretched jaws to come. 



The full humor of this will be perceived by those who 

 remember that hummingbirds are exclusively American — 

 not Oriental. Finally Linnaeus confirmed all this mixture 

 of mistakes by fastening the name Trochilidae on the 

 Hummingbird family. 



Finally, John Josselyn, Gent., in his Rarities of Nezv 

 England, calls our American chimney-swift a "troculus," 

 and describes its nesting absurdly thus : 



The troculus— a small bird, black and white, no bigger than 

 a swallow, the points of whose feathers are sharp, which they 

 stick into the sides of the chymney (to rest themselves), their 

 legs being exceedingly short) where they breed in nests made 

 like a swallow's nest, but of a glewy substance; and which is 

 not fastened to the chymney as a swallow's nest, but hangs 

 down the chymney by a clew-like string a yard long. They 

 commonly have four or five young ones; and when they go 

 away, which is much about the time that swallows used to de- 

 part, they never fail to throw down one of their young birds 

 into the room by way of gratitude. I have more than once ob- 

 served, that, against the ruin of the family, these birds will 

 suddenly forsake the house, and come no more. 



Another unfortunate but long-accepted designation in 

 systematic ornithology was attached by Linnaeus to the 



