STORKS 155 



It is quite a common bird, but only at certain places, 

 usually an open rocky shore where the Ampullariae are 

 easily found. 



Another all black stork of about the same size {Ciconia 

 nigra) is often mistaken by the natives for the " Mpavana," 

 so that at first when one asked its name one always got 

 the name for the ibis. However, a more observant 

 native distinguished it as " Sombabyuma," a curious 

 name which implies that this bird collects pieces of 

 iron ! 



Another stork of about the same size, but black and 

 white {Abdimia abdimii), appears from time to time in 

 large flocks that, after soaring round and round high up 

 in the air, descend to open grass land and eat grasshoppers. 



The natives call it by the name " Enunda," which is 

 apparently their equivalent for the English " stork," 

 for they applied the same name to a specimen of the fine 

 saddle-billed stork {Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis), which 

 I once, and only once, saw on the shore of Buvu, in 

 the Sesse Archipelago, in 1912. It is a fine bird, with 

 blue-black and glossy bottle-green and white plumage, 

 the huge bill being crimson and black with a " saddle " 

 of yellow. The European stork, curiously enough, was 

 never met with on the islands, and I had never seen it 

 until I found it numerous in the Singidda district of ex- 

 German East Africa, at the southern end of the great 

 East African Rift valley — this was in February 1918. 

 The remarkable Nilotic whale headed stork {Balceniceps 

 rex) was also absent from the islands, perhaps because 

 there was not a large enough area of papyrus swamp. 



The Hammer-head, or Tufted Umbre {Scopus umbretta), 

 is not uncommon along the shore, although one never 

 sees more than one at a time, for it appears to be a solitary 

 bird. It is of a dull dark brown and has a large head, 

 tufted as its name implies, with a heavy bill. It is found 

 standing in the shallow water of a sheltered pool or bay, 



