308 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare’s Time. 
lives in tlie river Nilus, hath a worm breeds i’ th’ teeth of it, which puts- 
it to extream anguish : a little bird, no bigger than a wren, is barber 
surgeon to this crocodile; flies into the jaws of it, pieks out the worm, 
and brings present remedy. The fish, glad of ease, but ungrateful to¬ 
iler that did it, that the bird may not talk largely abroad of her for non¬ 
payment, closeth her chaps, intending to swallow her, and so put her 
to perpetual silence. But nature, loathing such ingratitude, hath 
arm’d this bird with a quill or prick on the head top, which wound the- 
crocodile i’ th’ mouth, forceth her to open her bloody prison, and away 
flies the pretty took-picker from her cruel patient.” (Vittorio/ 
Coromhona , act iv. ed. Dyce.) 
This bird, which was called the trochilus by the- 
ancients, is referred to by Lyly: “ The birde trochilus- 
liveth by the mouth of the crocodile and is not spoyled ” 
(Euphues, p. 45). In modern times this little bird, which 
in any case must have had a somewhat precarious exist¬ 
ence, has been identified by M. G-eoffroy St. Hilaire, as a 
species of plover, which enters the crocodile’s mouth in 
search of gnats. By the prick on its head, mentioned by 
Leo, the slender crest peculiar to this species of bird is 
probably meant. 
The crocodile, secured by his armour against violence,, 
was not proof against cunning, and Du Bartas, in his poem 
on the Creation, describes the joint attack of the ichneu¬ 
mon and this same little bird upon the unwieldy 
reptile:— 
“ Tliou mak’st th’ ichneumon whom the Memphs adore 
To rid of poysons Nile’s manured shore 
Although indeed he doth not conquer them 
So much by strength as subtle stratagem. 
* * * * * 
So Pharoahs rat, yer he begin the fray 
’Gainst the blinde aspick, with a cleaving clay 
Upon his coat he wraps an earthen cake, 
Which, afterward, the sun’s hot beams doe bake r 
Arm’d with this plaister, th’ aspick he approcheth, 
And in his throat his crooketh tooth he brocheth; 
While th’ other boot-less strives to pierce and prick 
Through the hard temper of his armour thick : 
