ALLIGATORS. 135 
to it:—‘‘ When the crocodile takes his food in the Nile, the 
interior of its mouth is always covered with dde//a (flies). All birds, 
with one single exception, flee from the crocodile ; but this one, the 
Nile Bird, far from avoiding it, flies towards the reptile with the 
greatest eagerness, and renders it a very essential service. Every 
time the crocodile goes on shore to sleep, and at the moment when 
it lies extended with open jaws, the Nile Bird enters the mouth of 
the terrible animal and delivers it from the dded/a which it finds 
there ; the crocodile shows its recognition of the service, by never 
harming the bird.” 
This fact, reported by Herodotus, was long considered to be a 
fable, but the naturalist,(Ktienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who formed 
part of the commission that General Bonaparte took with him in 
his expedition into Egypt, had on several occasions opportunities 
of proving the truth of the historian’s narrative. 
In a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences on the 28th of 
January, 1828, he says: “‘ It is perfectly true that there exists a little 
bird which flies about, perpetually seeking, even in the mouth of 
the crocodile, the insects which form the principal part of its 
nourishment.” This bird, which Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire recognised 
as the Charadrius egyptius of ornithologists, is like a Plover. The 
fly, which thus torments the Crocodiles, and even excites them to 
madness, is no other than our European gnat.) Myriads of these 
insects haunt the banks of the Nile, and when these giants of its 
waters repose on its margin to warm themselves in the sun, they 
become the prey of these insignificant pigmies. It is like the 
war between the lion and the mouse, described by La Fontaine. 
Crocodiles are more voracious than Alligators. Hasselquist asserts 
that in Upper Fgypt they often devour women who come to draw 
water, or children playing upon the banks of the Nile. Geoffroy 
Saint-Hilaire says, that in the Thebaid they often met with Arabs 
mutilated by the crocodiles. Sir Samuel Baker also mentions, in 
his late work on ‘“‘ The Nile and its Tributaries,” the craving of these 
Amphibia for human flesh, and the dread they are held in by the 
natives. Livingstone gives the following account of these ferocious 
animals :— 
“The crocodile,” says the celebrated traveller, “makes many 
victims every year among the children who are so imprudent as to 
play on the banks of the Liambia when their mothers go to fetch 
water. The crocodile stupefies its victim with a blow from its tail, 
then drags it into the river, where it is soon drowned. In general, 
when the crocodile perceives a man it dives, and furtively glides 
