on the Egyptian Plover.



143



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.”


Two questions must be considered : first, does any bird

really do such a thing ? Second, is the “ Trochilus ” the bird

now known as the Egyptian Plover.


I11 Newton’s “ Dictionary of Birds,” (1894), P a § e 733 > a

foot-note is given to this subject ; the first question Newton

seems to have taken for granted, and as to the second after

stating that various authors identify the Spur-winged Plover

Hoplopterus spinosus as the true “ Crocodile Bird ” he considers

that “ the balance of scientific opinion is sufficiently declared” in

favour of Pluvianus cegyptius.


In Anderson’s “ Zoology of Egypt, Vol. I., Reptilia and

Batrachia,” (1898) the subject is fully gone into on pages iS to 23,

and the literature bearing 011 it from the earliest times quoted.

Anderson clearly proves that the bird identified by GeofFroy St.

Hilaire as Hasselquist’s Charadrius cegyptius was not our Egyptian

Plover, but was probably the Little-ringed Plover Aegialitis

curonica.


Personally I have carefully watched many hundred Nile

crocodiles, small, medium, and large-sized, basking on shore, I

have seen many birds, Herons, Storks, Ibises, Spoonbills, Geese,

Ducks, Plovers, and Wagtails, close to and among the sleeping

reptiles, but never yet have seen a bird try to enter a crocodile’s

mouth or pick food from it. It may possibly occur, but from my

knowledge of the habits of reptiles I would agree with Dr.

Anderson that a crocodile would not refrain from closing its jaws

on a bird that entered its mouth, even out of consideration for

any service the bird might be rendering it by catching vermin or

cleaning its teeth, and as Anderson writes, “The probability is

that if any particular species of bird has the habit, many an

individual has lost its life by so doing.” It is highly improbable

that a bird would come out alive from the once closed mouth of a

crocodile, and as it could not feed inside when the crocodile’s

mouth was shut the raison d'etre of the manoeuvre popularly

believed in is hard to follow.


It should be noted that A. L. Butler in his paper referred



