6 PRELIMINARY OBSERYATIONS. 



totle as the appellation of two distinct birds, 

 both of them European and Asiatic species. In 

 the eleventh chapter of the ninth book (Hist. 

 Anim.), the Trochilus is termed Presbys (irplff- 

 /3uc), and Basileus (/3a<ri\ve), the senator and 

 king ; and from its description, it was either 

 the common wren, as Belon supposes, or as Ray 

 thinks, the golden-crested wren ; but the point 

 is immaterial. The other Trochilus of Aristotle 

 was a bird haunting the borders of rivers, and a 

 favourite with the crocodile, into whose mouth 

 it was accustomed to enter with impunity, in 

 quest of insects or leeches which may have 

 attached themselves to the gums. It is ap- 

 parently to this bird that Herodotus (Euterpe) 

 alludes in the following passage : " The croco- 

 dile is blind in the water (an error), but very 

 quick-sighted on land ; and because he lives for 

 the most part in the river, his mouth is generally 

 infested with leeches (/33eXXcu from /33cX\w, to 

 suck, sucking creatures query, some sort of 

 insect?) so that, although other beasts and 

 birds equally avoid him, yet he lives in peace 

 with the Trochilus, because he receives a bene- 

 ficial service from that bird. For when the 

 crocodile goes out of the water and opens his 

 mouth, which he does most commonly towards 

 the south, the Trochilus enters and devours the 

 leeches, for which good office the crocodile is so 

 well pleased that he never hurts him." This 

 bird, according to Greoffrey St. Hilaire, is most 



