The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-08-18
THE CROCODILe-eIRD.
1t Enters the Mouth of the Saurian ar
Removes Leeches.

1t Enters the Mouth of the saurian ard
Removes Leeches.
The Ibis contains an extremely in
teresting communication by Mr.. j. NJ.
Cook on the subject of the old world
story of the bird which is said to attend
on the crocodile. and to enter its mouth
for the purpose of either picking its
teeth or removing the leeches from its
mouth. The latter is the older YER
sion, and was told by Herodotus, as fol-
lows: ''All other birds and beasts
avoid him (the crocodile): but he is at
peace with the trochilos because he re-
ceives benefit from shat bird For
when the crocodile gets out OF the
water on land and then opens its jaws,
which it does commonly toward the
west, the trochilos enters its mouth
and swallows the leeches: the crocodile
is so well pleased with this service that,
1t never hurts the trochilos." Number
less authors have repeated the story
which was amplified and oddly dis
torted by Pliny and the medieval au-
thors who followed him-but among
modern ornithologists, at all events, it
has received but little credence, though
it is mentioned by many of them
Their position in the matter is well ex-
emplifed by Gould in his Birds
of Asia" where, though in the
background of his plate repre-
senting the Egyptian plover, he
shows two of these birds entering the
mouth of crocodile, and in his letter
press he discusses the question whether
this bird or the spur-winged plover is
the trochilos of Herodotus. He tells us
that he only inserted the figure of the
crocodile to illustrate an oft-told tale,
and that the point as to which bird was
intended is of little moment, since in all
probability the story is not founded on
truth.
Mr.. Cook has, however, thrown new
light on the question, and has supplied
us with direct evidence that bird,
which he identifies as the spur-winged
plover, does enter the crOcodile's
mouth. 1t appears that in the year
1876 he noticed some crocOdiles and
several of the birds (which are called
by all the natives of the Nile valley
crocodile-birds," on a very large sand
bank near Derr. the capital of Lower
Nubia, and with his brother-in-law,
the late Mr.. J. f. Hedges, determined
to watch them. The following is his
account. in somewhat condensed
form, of what happened: For this
purpose, during the dark hours. we
had a small pit dug on the western
side of the large sandbank in question,
and about the peep of day the follow
ing morning we escOnced ourselves in
the pit. = We watched patient
ly until about noon, when two large
crocOdiles came out of the water on to
the bank, and apparently were soon
asleep Several crocodile-birds COM
menced fitting over them, and through
our field-glasses we watched ono bird
and saw it deliberately go up to croc-
odile. apparently asleep, which opened
its jaws.
1.-The bird hoped in, and the croco-
die closed it's jaws. In what appeared
to be very short time. probably not
more than minute or two, the croco-
die opened its jaws, and we saw the
crocodile-bird go down to the waters
edge. AS the sandbank was, / should
say. at least half mile across, and the
birds back was turned towards us, we
could not see whether il vomited in the
water or drank: but in the course of a
few seconds it returned to the croco-
die, which opened its mouth again,
and the bird again entered. The mouth
was closed, and in short time was
opened again for the bird to come out,
and the same operation was repeated
at the river bank. We saw the same
bird enter the crocodile's mouth three
times, and on three occasions run to
the water to either vomit or drink
Mr. Cook shot two of the
birds, which. as we have said, he has
since identified as the spur-winged
plover. In conclusion, he tells US that
he never knew that the fact of the
entering the. crocodile's
mouth was seriously doubted" until
which he had recently
with DIR. Sclater and Mr.. Seebohm-
LONDON Saturday Review.