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The bird is sometimes referred to as the "crocodile bird" based on the belief that the species had a symbiotic relationship with crocodiles. [13] According to Herodotus , the crocodiles lie on the shore with their mouths open and a bird called "Trochilus" flies into the crocodiles' mouths so as to feed on decaying meat lodged between the ...
"The Crocodile's Friend" from Henry Scherren's Popular Natural History (1906). The trochilus or trochilos (Greek: τροχίλος, trokhílos = "runner" [1]), sometimes called the crocodile bird, is a legendary bird, first described by Herodotus (c. 440 BC), and later by Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian, which was supposed to have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the Nile crocodile: it was ...
Herodotus claimed that Nile crocodiles had a symbiotic relationship with certain birds, such as the Egyptian plover, which enter the crocodile's mouth and pick leeches feeding on the crocodile's blood; with no evidence of this interaction actually occurring in any crocodile species, it is most likely mythical or allegorical fiction. [65]
As [the crocodile] lives chiefly in the river, it has the inside of its mouth constantly covered with leeches; hence it happens that, while all the other birds and beasts avoid it, with the trochilus it lives at peace, since it owes much to that bird: for the crocodile, when he leaves the water and comes out upon the land, is in the habit of ...
The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BC) described the crocodile in detail, though much of his description is fanciful; he claimed the crocodile would lie with its mouth open to permit a "trochilus" bird, possibly an Egyptian plover, to remove leeches. [178]
It lays four blotchy yellowish eggs on a ground scrape. The spur-winged lapwing is known to sometimes use the wing-claws in an attack on animals and, rarely, people, who get too close to the birds' exposed offspring.
Inmyeonjo – A human face with bird body creature in ancient Korean mythology. Karura – A divine creature of Japanese Hindu-Buddhist mythology with the head of a bird and the torso of a human. Kuk – Kuk's male form has a frog head while his female form has a snake head. Meretseger – The cobra-headed Egyptian Goddess.
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