HERODOTUS AND THE CROCODILE BIRD.
[To TIIN EDITOR Or TUX "SPNOTATOILl Slit,—An unimpeachable witness, the author of the " Monasteries of the Levant," vouches for the truth of this fact in natural history. He had on one occasion stalked a large crocodile, and was on the point of firing at it, when he saw that it was attended by a bird called a ziczac, which is of the plover species, of a greyish colour, and as large as a small pigeon. The bird was walking up and down close to the crocodile's nose. " Suddenly it saw me," says Curzon, "and instead of flying away, jumped up about a foot from the ground, screaming ziczac! ziczac I and dashed itself against the crocodile's face two or three times." Thereupon the crocodile, aroused to its danger, jumped up and dashed into the water and disappeared. " The ziczac, proud apparently of having saved his friend, remained walking up and down, uttering his cry, as I thought, with an exulting voice, and standing every now and then on the tips of his toes in a conceited manner." He concludes by saying that he felt some consolation for the loss of his game in having witnessed a circumstance the truth of which has • been disputed by several writers on natural history (p. 150). General Gordon in his "Central Africa" says that the crocodile always has a number of little birds about it (p. 8).-
Previous page
