838 SHELDER— SHOE-BILL 



SHELDER (Icel. Skjoldr — piebald), a local name for the 

 Oyster-catcher (c,J. Scolder, p. 817, and Sheld-drake, p. 835). 



SHELL-APPLE, a name for the Crossbill, but occasionally 

 for the Chaffinch, though in that case SHELLY is commoner. 



SHEPSTER, a local name for the Starling (c/. Chepster), 

 possibly an abbreviated form of Sheep-stare, from the bird's habit 

 of accompanying flocks of sheep. 



SHERIFF'S MAN, a nickname of the Goldfinch, from its 

 gaudy colouring. 



SHIRL ( = Shrill, c/". Shrike), a name for the Mistletoe-THRUSH. 



SHOE-BILL or SHOE-BIRD, renderings of the Arabic name 

 Alu-marhuh (Father of' a Shoe) that have been given by travellers 

 to one of the most remai"kable-looking of Central-African birds, 

 Balxniceps rex, also called by some writers the Whale-headed Stork 

 — the bird's huge bill,^ in shape not unlike a whale's head, and 

 tipped with a formidable hook, suggesting all these names. It 

 was first brought to Europe by Mr. Mansfield Parkyns - from the 

 White Nile, and was regarded by Gould {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1851, pp. 

 1, 2, Aves, pi. XXXV.), who described and figured it, as an abnormal 

 Pelican. This view was disputed by Reinhardt (op. cit. 1860, pp. 

 377-380) and wholly dispelled by Parker (Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. pp. 

 269-351, pis. 64-67), though these two authors disagreed as to its 

 affinities, the former placing it near Scopus (Hammer-head) with 

 the Storks, and the latter assigning it to the Herons. More 

 recent views either halt between these two opinions (Reichenow, 

 Jmirn. fur Orn. 1877, p. 231 ; Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 

 171), or incline to the latter (Fiirbringer, Untersuchungen, p. 1565 ; 

 Beddcrd, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 289; Gadow, Thier-reich, Vogel, 

 System. Th. p. 137). There should be no hesitation in regarding 

 it as the representative of a distinct Family Balmnicipitidse, on 

 account of its many structural peculiarities, and in singularity of 

 aspect few birds surpass it, with its gaunt grey figure, some five 

 feet in height, its large head surmounted by a little cui'led tuft, 



^ Jardine {Conir. Orn. 1851, pi. 68, p. 11) gave a full-sized figure of it. 



- This traveller only incidentally mentions {Life in Abyssinia, ii. pp. 304, 

 305) the bird, and indeed was never in the country it inhabits. His specimens, 

 according to Von Heuglin {ut infra), were bought of a slave-dealer in Khartoum, 

 whither they had been brought. It is reasonably supposed that to this species 

 belonged the extraordinary bird, as big as a young Camel, with a bill like a 

 Pelican's, though wanting a pouch, which Ferdinand Werne {Uxped. zur 

 Entdeck. der Quellen des Weissen Nil, p. 143) tells us was seen by his people, 

 15th December 1840, while he was asleep, and they were unwilling to awaken 

 him. His countryman Baron F. W. von Miiller {Nauinannia, 1852, i. p. 85) 

 was more fortunate, in that in 1848 he saw two, but was unable to procure 

 them. On his return to Khartoum he saw in a collection the t-wo specimens 

 afterwards bought by Mr, Parkyns, for which a high price was asked. 



