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Mr. Sclater, to whom I am indebted for many acts of kindness since 
my return to England*, 
Two living specimens out of six Baleniceps shipped at Khartoum 
(but perhaps out of a score partially reared, the first, as you are well 
aware, imported into Europe) have, almost against hope, survived the 
apparent insurmountable difficulties of the trying journey across 
nearly one-half the continent of Africa, and are at length, I am proud 
to say, safely housed in your commodious Gardens. 
The Baleniceps, although found only in or near water, is but 
rarely seen on the banks of the Nile, and then only during a short 
period of the year, when the interior is dried up, in the summer, 
during the short hot season preceding the rains. 
It prefers the natural tanks and morasses of the interior, where 
the shallowness of the water distributed over a large surface affords 
it greater facilities for wading than the banks of the Nile. These 
frequently shelve off into deep water more or less abruptly, and thus 
furnish but comparatively few spots favourable to the support and 
habits of the bird. 
For this reason, at about 100 miles west of the Nile, in from 5° to 
8° N. lat., at Gaba Shambyl, where I have a station of elephant- 
hunters, these interesting birds exist in greater numbers than on the 
Nile, or the comparatively deeper waters of the Bahr il Gazal, the 
lake to which I have alluded, and of which I have the honour of being, 
if not, strictly speaking, the discoverer, at least the first navigator. 
At Gaba Shambyl, striking off directly west from the Nile, the 
country for the first 30 miles rises with an almost imperceptible slope, 
when it again decreases in elevation for a distance of 60 to 70 miles. 
Here it becomes a large morass, with occasionally dry spots, which 
form so many islands in a sheet of water after the annual rains, that 
from north to south extends probably over 150 miles, having no outlet 
directly to the Nile, but, when the water is at a certain height, 
overflowing into a channel connecting it with the Bahr il Gazal. 
This reservoir, which is more or less supplied with water all the 
year round, abounds in reeds and thick bush, and is the favourite re- 
treat and home of the Baleniceps. 
* Mr. Petherick’s skins are in a condition which renders their specific deter- 
mination rather difficult. The most noticeable are,— 
Haliaétus vocifer, juv. Peocephalus meyeri, Rupp. 
Halcyon semicerulea (Gm.) ? Lemodon vielloti. 
Coracias abyssinica (Liun.). leucocephalus, De Fil. 
Merops egyptius? Edicnemus affinis, Riipp. ? 
Bucorax abyssinicus, Cursorius, sp. ? 
Lanius macrocercus, De Fil. Falcinelius igneus. 
Prionops cristatus, Rupp. Ardeola bubulcus. 
Laniarius chrysogaster, Sw. Nycticorax europeus. 
—— erythrogaster, Riipp.? Anastomus lamelligerus. 
Lamprotornis purpuroptera, Riipp. Mycteria senegalensis. 
Notauges superbus, Riipp. Parra africana. 
Colius senegalensis ? Plectropterus riippellii, Sclater. 
Schizorhis zonura, Riipp. Sterna (2 sp.). 
(Bids 3) 
