Owing to its habit of eating putrid flesh, the eyes, mouth, and throat of the crocodile are infested with swarms of large meat flies. The “Nile bird,” an agile and pretty insectivorous bird, follows the crocodile about, and, dashing even into his open jaws, picks off the flies. The brute seems to understand the good offices of the bird, and never snaps at it or closes his mouth upon it. Thus the Nile bird is the only friend of the crocodile, and the only living thing that does not fear him. The tongue of the crocodile is attached all round to the bottom of the mouth, and cannot be protruded. The neck is so formed with rib-like processes that it can be moved but little, so the giant reptile has no means of ridding itself of its persistent insignificant torments, the flies, and is at the mercy of the Nile bird’s appetite to get relief. The mother crocodile lays her eggs in the sand, which she heaps over them, and leaves the sun to warm them into life. A recent traveller says that he took seventy-nine eggs from a crocodile’s place of deposit near the bank of an African river. There was no effort to make a nest, but the mother had chosen a spot a few paces from the bank of the river, and had made it clear of plants in a circle of several yards in diameter. To do this she had placed herself on the spot and wheeled her heavy body round a number of times, making the earth clear. Then she had laid down a few branches, as if to prevent the eggs from rolling away. Next she dug out four pits, each about two feet deep, obliquely set. The eggs were laid twenty or twenty-five each day, until a hundred had been placed in the pits, one pit being dug and filled before another was made. After the eggs are laid the mother crocodile remains asleep near them a great part of the time, basking in the sun, and leaving the place of deposit only to go to the water and seek food. The egg-laying occurs but once a year, about the opening of January. It is two months before the young hatch out, and about the time they appear the rainy season sets in. As they come from the hatching place they take to the water by instinct, and there the mother is waiting to give them what defence she can, for the male adult crocodiles are ready to devour them, and wild beasts of various kinds make them a prey. The young crocodiles show their fierce disposition at once, fighting, biting, and making themselves generally disagreeable as soon as they get into the water. FOOTNOTES: [70] Specimens even longer than this have been noted. LESSON XXXVIII. EL LAGARTO. Basking upon a log he lies; Around him skim the dragon flies; Above the squirrel drums his tune; The rabbit steals along the brake, And trembles lest his footsteps wake The tyrant of the still lagoon. [Illustration: LURKING.]