80 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



was preparing to pull the trigger, his attention was 

 attracted by a bird about the size of a plover, 

 walking up and down near the crocodile. Sud- 

 denly springing up, and uttering its cry of " zic- 

 zac " by which name it is known in Egypt * it 

 flew several times against his head and face, to 

 give the alarm, and so successfully, that before the 

 narrator of the adventure could fire, he was covered 

 with mud dashed over him by the great reptile as 

 he rushed into the river. Herodotus's account is as 

 follows. " I proceed now to describe the nature 



of the crocodile Living in the 



water its throat is always full of leeches : beasts 

 and birds universally avoid it, the trochilus 

 alone excepted, which from a sense of gratitude it 

 treats with kindness. When the crocodile leaves 

 the water, it reclines itself in the sand and gene- 

 rally towards the west with its mouth open ; the 

 trochilus entering its throat destroys the leeches ; 

 in acknowledgment for which service it never does 

 the trochilus injury."! 



Geoffry St. Hilaire admits the fact, but says 

 that " the bird enters the mouth of the crocodile 

 attracted, not by leeches, but by a small insect like 



* The zic-zac in the vy>x\\et of Herodotus and the Charadrius 



cat of modern ornithologiHts. 

 t BELOE'S Herodotus. 



