ANNELIDANS. 337 



French soldiers, attacking them in nearly the 

 same way ; when they drank, fastening itself to 

 their throat, and occasioning hemorrhages and 

 other serious accidents. 



Mr. Madox, in his Excursions in the Holy 

 Land, Egypt, &c., states that he had frequently 

 seen, on the banks of the Nile, a bird about the 

 size of a dove, or rather larger, of handsome 

 plumage, and making a twittering noise when 

 on the wing. It had a peculiar motion of the 

 head, as if nodding to some one near it, at the 

 same time turning itself to the right and left, 

 and making its conge twice or thrice before 

 its departure. This bird, he was told, was called 

 Sucksaque, and that tradition had assigned to 

 it the habit of entering the mouth of the croco- 

 dile, when basking in the sun, on a sand bank, 

 for the purpose of picking what might be ad- 

 hering to its teeth: which being done, upon 

 a hint from the bird, the reptile opens his mouth 

 and permits it to fly away. 1 



This seems evidently the Trochilus of Hero- 

 dotus, above alluded to, as clearing the mouth 

 of the crocodile from the leeches. Aristotle, in 

 more than one place of his History of Animals, 

 mentions such a bird, and a similar tradition 

 concerning it, with that of Mr. Madox. " The 

 Trochilus flying into the yawning mouth of the 



1 Excursions) &c. i. 408. 

 VOL. I. Z 



