IS THE EEPTILES OF EGYPT. 
degree to which it manifests this seems to depend largely on the abundance of its food- 
supply, as pointed out by Macoudi 1 and by Schweinfurth 2 . Fish is its principal diet, 
but birds, the domestic animals found along the banks of the Nile, baboons 3 , and 
man himself, all fall to it as prey. It either seizes its prey directly with its jaws or, 
by means of its powerful tail, whisks its prey within reach of them, dragging it 
under the water. 
Notwithstanding the nature of its food it is eaten by the Sudanese and by other 
African tribes 4 , apparently by reason of its reputed aphrodisical properties. 
Herodotus 5 says that as the crocodile i£ lives chiefly in the river it has the inside of 
its mouth constantly covered with insects that suck its blood; all other beasts and 
birds avoid it: with the trochilus alone it lives at peace, because this little bird 
renders it a great service ; for the crocodile when it leaves the water and comes out 
upon the land is in the habit of lying with its mouth wide open facing the western 
breeze ; at such times the trochilus goes into the crocodile's mouth and devours the 
insects it finds there, and the crocodile, recognizing this, does the bird no harm." 
Pliny's 6 account, which is somewhat different, is as follows : — " When the crocodile has 
eaten, it goes to sleep on the banks, when a little bird, known in Egypt as the 
trochilus, and in Italy as the king of birds, in order to obtain food, invites the 
crocodile to open its jaws, then, hopping to and fro, it first cleans the outside of its 
mouth, next the teeth, and then inside, when the crocodile opens its jaws as wide as 
possible, on account of the pleasure it experiences from the titillation. It is at these 
moments that the ichneumon darts down its throat and eats its way out through its 
belly." Geoflioy St.-Hilaire 7 held that the word /3§!AAa, as applied by Herodotus to the 
insects in the mouth of the crocodile, in its original meaning signified animals that 
suck, but that tdtimately it became specialized and was applied to the true leeches, 
hirudo. The word, Geoffrey held, was not used by Herodotus in the latter specific 
sense, but referred to insects, such as gnats, which suck blood. Herodotus, however, 
explains the presence of the sucking animals in the mouth of the crocodile as being 
due to its aquatic habit, which does not coincide with Geoffroy's supposition that they 
were aerial insects. Aristotle 8 , who also mentions the supposed intimacy subsisting 
between the trochilus and the crocodile, while he offers no explanation of the word 
fiSeWu used by Herodotus, says that the bird flew into the mouth of the crocodile 
because it found food about its teeth, which nourished it. 
From the accounts Geoffroy received from the fishermen and by personal knowledge 
he became aware that the crocodile, when it comes out of the water to repose, is 
1 Marmol, I, c. pp. 61-62. - Op. cit. ii. p. 336. 3 Sir S. Bal:er, dp. cit. p. 241. 
1 'A Collection or Curious Travels and Voyages,' 1693, ii. pp. 177-180 ; Baker's 'Albert Nyanza,' ii. p. 122, 
and 'Nile Tributaries,' p. 166 ; 'Ismailia,' i. p. 57; J. "W. Gregory, 'The Great Eift Valley,' 1896, pp. 277-278. 
6 ii. to xvii. ° Nat. Hist. Bk. viii. c. 37. 
7 Descr. de l'Egypte, Nat. Hist. (Svo ed.) vi. 1827, p. 432. 8 Hist. Aniin. ix. vii. 3. 
