BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 47 



this Pleasure, the Ichneumon, having discovered the Oppor- 

 tunity, shooteth himself down his Throat like a Dart, and 

 gnaweth a Hole through his Belly. 1 



In the Nilus there breeds also the Scincos, 2 which is like 

 the Crocodile, but less than the Ichneumon. It is the chief 

 Antidote against Poisons, and also provokes the Heat of 

 Lust in Men. 



But the Crocodile produceth so much Mischief, that 

 Nature is not content to have given him only one Enemy; 



opens his mouth, the trochilus goes into his throat and devours the 

 leeches : the crocodile is pleased at being relieved, and hurts not the 

 trochilus." Although this statement is confirmed by Aristotle, Pliny, 

 and other ancient writers, it has been very generally discredited in 

 modern times. Recent inquiries, however, shew that in this, as in most 

 of his relations, the father of history is justified by the fact. The term 

 "bdella" has hitherto been translated " leech." But M. Geoffrey St. 

 Hilaire has adopted the opinion that it corresponds to "culex," that is, 

 " a gnat," myriads of which insects swarm on the banks of the Nile, and 

 attack the crocodile when he comes to repose on the sand. His mouth 

 is not so hermetically closed but that they can enter, which they do in 

 such numbers, that the interior of his palate, which is naturally of a 

 bright yellow, appears covered with a darkish brown crust. The insects 

 strike their trunks into the orifices of the glands which abound in the 

 mouth of the crocodile ; and the tongue of the animal being immoveable, 

 it cannot get rid of them. It is then that the trochilus, a kind of plover, 

 closely allied to the Charadrius minor of Meyer, or in the opinion of M. 

 St. Hilaire, C. Egyptiacus, but which Pliny, confounding with another 

 bird of the same name, calls " the king of birds," in its pursuit of the 

 gnats, hastens to his relief ; the crocodile always taking care, when he is 

 about to shut his mouth, to make certain movements which warn the 

 bird to fly away. Thus the ancient story is not so unreasonable as might 

 be thought. It is matter of every-day observation, that gnats will attack 

 bulls and other large terrestrial animals of the fiercest nature ; and that 

 wagtails and other insectivorous birds will peck the former from their 

 muzzles. While in India it is common to see the ox approaching its eye 

 deliberately to the ground, by holding its head on one side, to enable the 

 mina, a species of starling, to take an insect from the hairs of the eyelid. 

 There appears, therefore, no reason why the crocodile should not have 

 recourse to similar aid on similar necessity. Wern. Club. 



1 It can hardly be worth while to refute such a fable as this, but it 

 was long entertained as worthy of serious belief. Wern. Club. 



a Lib. xxviii. c. 8. Wern. Club. 



