PloverCrocodileSymbiosis.jpg
Summary
Description PloverCrocodileSymbiosis.jpg |
English:
A small bird such as a plover or sandpiper, representing the Trochilus described by Herodotus, eats leeches from the gaping open mouth of a Nile crocodile in an early example of Cleaning Symbiosis.
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Date | ||||
Source | http://www.50birds.com/gendalligators2.htm , image taken from Popular Natural History, 1909 | |||
Author | Henry Scherren | |||
Permission
( Reusing this file ) |
PD-Old-100 and PD-1923; Scherren died in 1911 so copyright has expired. | |||
Other versions |
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A 'Trochilus' bird, perhaps a Sandpiper or Plover,
Spur-winged Plover
eats leeches from from the teeth of a
Nile Crocodile
, in a classic supposed example of cleaning symbiosis.
- Egyptian Plover ( Pluvianus aegyptius ). Africa's Spur-winged Plover Vanellus spinosus is a lapwing and has black head with bold white triangle opening towards neck. P. aegypticus is a courser with a black head with two thin white stripes as here. The behaviour is apparently real, but not well documented. Dysmorodrepanis 21:35, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
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- Whatever the portrayed bird is meant to be, it is neither a Spur-winged plover (for instance black belly) nor an Egyptian plover (for instance black hindneck). The African bird it most resembles is the White-crowned/headed plover/lapwing ( Vanellus albiceps ). I guess the illustrator/author was not too familiar with African birds.
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I wonder. The behaviour has been recorded among Sandpipers in Egypt, and the bird drawn is not unlike the Common Sandpiper (
Actitis hypoleucos
) (which overwinters in Egypt), so perhaps the artist used that as the model.
Chiswick Chap
(
talk
) 11:01, 17 February 2012 (UTC)
- A footnote: there is little evidence for cleaning symbiosis between any bird and the Nile Crocodile, but what there is suggests that Herodotus and Scherren most likely heard about sandpipers; and Scherren clearly picked a sandpiper as his model for this illustration. Chiswick Chap ( talk ) 09:28, 4 November 2012 (UTC)
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I wonder. The behaviour has been recorded among Sandpipers in Egypt, and the bird drawn is not unlike the Common Sandpiper (
Actitis hypoleucos
) (which overwinters in Egypt), so perhaps the artist used that as the model.
Chiswick Chap
(
talk
) 11:01, 17 February 2012 (UTC)
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Illustration from Popular Natural History by Henry Scherren, published 1909. Image found at [: http://www.50birds.com/gendalligators2.htm ].
Licensing
Public domain Public domain false false |
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer . This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office ) before January 1, 1929. |
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This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. |
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ PDM Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 false false