220 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XVII 
birds of Egypt. This ancient historian affirmed that the 
crocodile, though living in the water, ‘'has its mouth 
entirely filled with leeches. So that while all other 
birds and beasts avoid the crocodile the trochilus lives 
peacefully with it, and at times enters his mouth and 
gulps down the leeches. The crocodile is pleased at the 
services thus rendered and 
does not hurt the trochilus” 
(Book XL). 
At the present day the 
Plover [Pluvianus cegypticus) 
behaves to the 
crocodiles as the 
oxpecker to the 
The Monitor ( Varanus niloticus) 
swallowing the egg of a 
crocodile. 
rhinoceros, hippopotamus and buffalo, for it hops about 
their bodies and rids them of the vermin which lie in the 
creases of their thick skins. This plover has been called 
the crocodile’s living tooth-pick. I have endeavoured to 
