i4 2



Captain Stanley S. Flower,



yard of the guard house near the Atbara bridge, and as little dis¬

turbed by one’s walking among them as were the “ barn-door”

cocks and hens.


Von Heugliu in his account of the Egyptian Plover “ Orni-

thologie Nordost-Afrika’s ” (1873) page 976, apparently doubts

the usually accepted opinion that this bird buries its eggs in the

sand and says that he himself always found them lying free, but

Seebohm “ Geogr. Distr. Charadriidse” (1887) pages 250-251,.

confirms the account of Brehni by the very interesting observa¬

tions of Captain Verner and Lieutenant G. Verner made in the

Sudan, during the Nile Expedition of 18S4-1885, making it an

established fact that this bird does bury her eggs. Which has

again been substantiated by A. L. Butler in his recent paper re¬

ferred to above, whose account should be read by all interested

in the subject. And Mr. W. G. Percival in the Avicultural

Magazine , July 1906, page 297, records finding “ a three-parts-

grown ” Egyptian Plover hidden under about a quarter-of-au-

iucli of sand on an islet at the mouth of the Atbara River.


It should be noted that while Heugliu gives the number

of eggs in a clutch as two, which was the number found by

Butler, Captain Verner twice found three eggs in a clutch.


The Egyptian Plover is perhaps most widely known from

its reputed habits which have given it the name of the Crocodile

Bird. The old story as given by Herodotus is that the crocodile

“ has the inside of its mouth constantly covered with insects that

suck its blood ; all other beasts and birds avoid it: while 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

open facing the western breeze ; at such times the Trochilus goes

into the crocodle’s mouth and devours the insects it finds there,

and the crocodile, recognising this, does the bird no harm.”

While Pliny writes “ 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



