288 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTOET. [Book VIII. 



that is proof against all blows. It passes the day on land, and 

 the night in the water, in both instances on account of the 

 warmth. 92 When it has glutted itself with fish, it goes to 

 sleep on the banks of the river, a portion of the food always 

 remaining in its mouth ; upon which, a little bird, which in 

 Egypt is known as the trochilus, and, in Italy, as the king of 

 the birds, for the purpose of obtaining food, invites the croco- 

 dile to open its jaws ; then, hopping to and fro, it first 

 cleans the outside of its mouth, next the teeth, and then the 

 inside, while the animal opens its jaws as wide as possible, 

 in consequence of the pleasure which it experiences from the 

 titillation. 93 It is at these moments that the ichneumon, seeing 

 it fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus 

 produced, darts down its throat like an arrow, and eats away 

 its intestines. 94 



CHAP. 38. THE SCTtfCTJS. 



Like the crocodile, but smaller even than the ichneumon, is 

 the scincus, 95 which is also produced in the Nile, and the flesh of 

 which is the most effectual antidote against poisons, and acts as 

 a powerful aphrodisiac upon the male sex. But so great a pest 

 was the crocodile to prove, that Nature was not content with 

 giving it one enemy only ; the dolphins, therefore, which enter 



92 Herodotus says, that it remains all night in the water, as being 

 warmer than the external air. So also Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 

 10. B. 



93 The water of the Nile abounds with small leeches, which attach to 

 the throat of the crocodile, and, as it has no means of removing them, it 

 allows a little bird to enter its mouth for this purpose ; this is described 

 by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, and by JElian, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c. 

 2, B. 



94 Although this account is sanctioned by all the ancient naturalists, it 

 is called in question by Cuvier ; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 441 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. 

 p. 421. B. 



95 There is a small lizard, called by the modern naturalists the Lacerta 

 scincus ; but Cuvier conceives that this cannot be the animal here referred 

 to, because it is so very much smaller than the ichneumon, that no one 

 would have thought of comparing them ; and, what seems a better reason, 

 because it is not found in the Nile. From the account of the scincus in 

 B. xxviii. c. 30, it is probable that the animal here referred to is a species 

 of monitor, popularly called the land crocodile. Herodotus, B- iv. c. 192, 

 speaks of the land crocodile as found in Libya ; it is also mentioned by 

 rausanias, Corinthiaca, c. 20, and by Prosper Alpinus, ^Egypt. B. iv. c. 5. 

 B. The scincus is probably the " Lacerta ouaran" of Cuvier. 



