last moved to bask upon a sand bank, tbe 
trocbilus is full of activity. It runs busily 
liitlier and tliitber, plucking off and swal¬ 
lowing tbe leeches that always are to be 
found adhering to tbe soft parts of the 
crocodile’s body. 
The lazy saurian, in tbe mean time, like 
those happy mortals who fall asleep under 
tbe barber’s ministrations, closes bis mean 
little eyes and forgets his cares. Busy 
as it may be in helping itself to the tooth¬ 
some leeches, the trochilus has set a sharp 
eye out for intruders, and above all for 
man. Should any such approach too near, 
the sharp cry of the faithful guardian 
rouses the slmnberer, which at once glides 
away into tbe water and safety. 
Turning from this pitiful case of unre¬ 
quited affection, it will be necessary to 
take but a few steps into the African jun¬ 
gle to come u])on an almost equally un¬ 
gainly and savage brute guarded w^ith as 
much care and jealous^’" by an even more 
attractive bird than the ti-ochilus. These 
are the rhinoceros and his faithful attend¬ 
ants the red-beaked ox-biters {Buphaga 
erythrorhynca), more ]iopularly known 
as rhinoceros-birds. 
These birds, which belong to the great 
raven family, are, to use Gordon 
Cumming’s words, ‘ ‘ tlie best friends 
the rhinoceros has.” They cling to 
him through good and evil report; 
watch over him by day, and perch 
upon him by night; never leaving 
him, in fact, as long as he has a 
tick to his hide — in other Avords, as 
long as he has a hide for a tick to 
burrow in. 
Ticks, Avhich infest the forests of 
most parts of the earth, and are par¬ 
ticularly plentiful and enterprising 
in Africa, cause the most exquisite 
agony to the rhinoceros, hippopot¬ 
amus, and elephant, notAvithstand- 
ing the seeming protec¬ 
tion of their A^ery thick 
skin. It is quite proba¬ 
ble, indeed, that the seem¬ 
ing protection is only a 
source of greater suffer¬ 
ing, because of the great¬ 
er difficulty of dislodging 
the tormentor. 
To the bird, ImAA^eA^er, 
these ticks are as so many 
nuggets of gold to the 
prospectingman. Itsbeak 
is so constructed as to ren¬ 
der the extraction of a deeply imbedded 
tick only a pleasantly difficult task. What 
an art this is that man alone can knoAV 
aaTio has attempted to dislodge a tick from 
his OAvn skin, and only succeeded in leuA'- 
ing there a safely buried and poisonous 
head. Tbe ungainly recipient of the bird’s 
attentions is duly grateful, and ncA^er, 
eA^en Avhen suffering great pain from the 
probing beak, offers any remonstrance, 
but rather shoAVS, by the liberties it per¬ 
mits, the implicit confidence it reposes in 
its attendants. 
In those hot and marshy parts of the 
Avorld a slight AA^ound soon becomes a 
serious sore, and in consequence of the 
attraction it is to flies and other unplea¬ 
sant little creatures, AA’ould soon become 
the cause of the afflicted animal’s death, 
did not the feathered guardians zealously 
AA'atch the affected spot, and treat it as 
skillfully and effectually as any physi¬ 
cian could. In Abyssinia the natives dis¬ 
like the bird, because they ignorantly 
fancy that the probing of the wounds on 
their cattle preA^ents healing. 
It may be understood from Avhat has 
been said that the rhinoceros-bird is no 
careless guardian practicing benevolence 
