THE SHOEBILL OR WHALE- 

 HEADED STORK 



Balaeniceps rex 



Arabic name, Abu-markub, or Father of a Slipper 



The whole plumage is a faded blue-grey running into 

 •darker tones on the wing. The primaries and tail being 

 nearly black, eyes light yellow, legs dark brownish-black. 

 Bill, huge, boat-shaped. 



This bird I have included, though hardly a true 

 Egyptian bird, its home being in the Soudan and 

 south to Uganda, where Sir H. Johnston commonly 

 saw it. It is the greatest show-bird the Cairo 

 Zoological Gardens possesses, and by the ordinary 

 person can be alone seen in Egypt. It is so 

 exceedingly quaint and grotesque, that even when 

 desiring to give an accurate representation of it, 

 one is conscious that one's drawing seems to look 

 rather like a caricature. When it stands still there 

 is something suggestive of a crabbed, disagreeable 

 old person ; and when it walks, the slow pedantic 

 gait with the leg shot forward, with distended toes 

 pointing outwards, inevitably suggests the drum- 

 major or the dancing -master. So many people 



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