CROCODILES. 



461 



elope are often seen to disappear from view as they seek the water to avoid the 

 hounds, and the dogs are especially palatable to the huge reptile. It is said that 

 the animals acquire a taste for human flesh. In localities where they once caused 

 no g]-eat fear, on receiving the dead bodies of criminals, they at length became so 

 ferocious as to be greatly dreaded. The natives kill them by thrusting a barbed spear 

 into their side as they lie unsuspectingly on the bank, or they dig a pit in some fi'e- 

 quented path, into which the reptile falls as it flees from the cries of the savages as 

 they "beat the bush." 



Fig. 266. — Crocodilus iivuricanun, crocodile. 



- ^MEURER'.XA-BEnUtJ. 



An ancient story, supposed for a long time to be fabulous, is told by Herodotus, 

 the verity of which has been established by the later naturalists. The ancient writer 

 said : " When the crocodile takes his food in the Nile, the inside of its mouth is always 

 covered with a small fly. All birds, with a single exception, flee from the crocodile, 

 but this one, the Nile bird, Trochylus, far from avoiding it, flies towards the reptile 

 with the greatest eagerness and renders it a very essential service. Every time the 

 crocodile goes on shore, the Nile bird enters the mouth of the terrible animal and 



