80 



Crocodiles.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-Ckocodiles. 



of tlie Nile by this distinguished historian is declared 

 by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who, during the invasion 

 of Egypt by the Frencli under Kapoleon I., had great 

 opportunities of studying and observing tlie habits of 

 tlie creature, to be true in most respects as we find it at 

 the present day. It would appear that at the time he 

 wrote, the Crocodile was found in Lower Kgypt, but 

 now it is only found in Upper Kgypt, aud is never seen 

 below Thebes. In such situations the temperature is 

 very high, and accordingly it is never found in a lethar- 

 gic state, as is the case with the species found in America 

 and elsewhere. It is nocturnal in its liabits. During the 

 day it comes ashore, taking up its abode in some quiet 

 retreat for the purpose of sleeping ; but when evening 

 comes on it resumes its activity and returns to the 

 water, where alone it is able to successfully secure its 

 prey. Their principal place of abode is a series of 

 small islands in the river, and there they live ui society. 

 Mr. St. John, in his " Travels in the Valley of the 

 Nile," tells us that he saw numbers of them during his 

 passage up the river. " These islands (sand-banks at 

 Pharos) are the usual haunts of the Crocodile ; but as 

 they love to bask in the warm snn, and have an aver- 

 sion to cold, there is little danger of encountering them 

 early in the morning, or when the wind blows. In 

 fact they seem never to rise out of the water but when 

 the surfece of the Nile resembles that of a pond, and 

 the whole sandy shore is glittering in the sun, when 

 }'ou see them lying in troops along the edge of the 

 stream." The different individuals of the troop select 

 and keep their own particular spot. These are flat 

 shores where spurs of fine sand stretch a considerable 

 distance, and conduct to the water's edge by a gentle 

 declivity. Each troop or society remains faithfully 

 attached to the localities where they were born, and 

 never go far from them except when in search of prey. 

 This occupation fuHilled, they return at particular 

 hours to their resting-places on the sandy shore, which 

 had been jjrevionsly selected by the foresight of the 

 old chiefs of the family ; and placing a sentinel to give 

 the alarm in case of danger, they there abandon them- 

 selves securely to sleep. The sentinel, placing his 

 ear partly on the ground, listens for the least noise, 

 and if disturbed, the troop make direct to the water. 

 M. G. St. Hilaire says he has watched them at such 

 times, and has seen them turn themselves slowly, aud 

 march at first apparently carefully and with measured 

 steps, but after a certain distance they would leap 

 briskly into the water, clearing at a bound a consider- 

 able distance. The egg of the Crocodile is white, and 

 of a spheroidal form. It is not much larger than that 

 of a goose, and the young Crocodile at its birth is only 

 two and a half decimetres in length. 



The very name of Crocodile excites the idea of an 

 animal alike formidable for its size and ferocity ; of an 

 animal unequalled in its own orders, and which is the 

 tyrant of the fresh waters. The story of the little bird 

 called Trochllos by Herodotus, which, according to his 

 account, frees the mouth of the Crocodile fi'om the 

 leeches which infest it — or, as Pliuy asserts, picks or 

 cleans the huge reptile's teeth — is probably familiar to 

 every one. We will allow Mr. St. John to tell the 

 tale : — " We shot aud ate a siksah, the Trochilos of 



Herodotus, a sort of gentleman in waiting on the Cro- 

 codile, about which history and tradition tell strange 

 stories. What they say is this, that the Crocodile 

 being too much addicted to live in water with his jaws 

 opeu, allows a number of leeches to creep down his 

 throat, where, vigorously sucking his blood, they prove 

 extremely troublesome. Against these enemies, how- 

 ever, he finds a faithful ally in the siksak, which, as 

 soon as he perceives, he opens his delicate mouth, and 

 the bird, rendered bold by instinct, leaps like another 

 Curtius into the gulf, not to be swallowed up how- 

 ever, but to swallow. He kills and devours the leeches, 

 and then hopping out, receives the thanks of the Cro- 

 codile. Sometimes this lumbering annual, getting 

 sleepy during the process, mechanically closes his jaws, 

 so as to deprive his little friend of air ; upon which, 

 extending his wings, furnished with sharp spikes on 

 the tips of the shoulders, he wounds the Crocodile's 

 throat, and reminds him that it is his business to be 

 civil. " For the truth of the story," he adds, " I will 

 not answer; but certain it is that I seldom, perhaps 

 never, saw a Crocodile without a siksak standing close 

 beside him on the sand, evidently within his reach, but 

 without his exhibiting the slightest desire to molest 

 or injure it." Herodotus was the first author that 

 mentions this curious tale ; and M. Geoflroy thinks, 

 that if we use the word generally translated leeches,, to 

 mean merely anything that sucks blood, the story is 

 not at all destitute of reality. There are thousands of 

 gnats and musquitos in these localities he says, which 

 suck blood ; and he asserts that as the Crocodile has 

 no movable tongue to sweep them away, its mouth 

 is infested with these troublesome insects to a great 

 degree. Moreover, he affirms that there is a small 

 bird called siksah by the natives, which he has fre- 

 quently observed hopping about in all directions round 

 the Crocodile, and even going into the mouth of the 

 reptile as it lay asleep, or was feignirig to be so. 

 Attracted by these insects, upon which it feeds, he has 

 no hesitation in saying the bird does enter the reptile's 

 mouth when wide open, and there picks up the insects 

 which it finds in abundance. This bird is recognized 

 at once as a species described by Hasslequist, under the 

 name of the Egyptian plover {Charadrius JErjyptim); 

 and as to this apparent cordiality between two such 

 animals, there is nothing very extraoidinary in it, as 

 similar ailections arising from mutual good offices, are 

 exemplified in other cases in the animal kingdom. 



If the Crocodile has a good friend in the little siksak, 

 it finds powerful enemies in one or two other small 

 animals. The ichneumon, a small animal about 

 eighteen inches long, belonging to the Viverridce or 

 Civets, is particularly destructive. It is very fond of 

 eggs, and in Upper Egypt searches with great avidit}' 

 for the eggs of the Crocodile in the sand. It devours 

 great numbers, and it was thought to check so much 

 the increase of these large reptiles, that it is one of 

 the animals which were formerly held sacred by the 

 natives ; divine honours having been paid to it in the 

 ancient city of Heraclea. The tupinambis too, a 

 large lizard, is a powerful enemy, for, as it swims well, 

 besides eating the eggs, it destroys a great number of 

 the young after they have reached the water. Though, 



