94 CICONIIFORMES CHAP. 
species often shew grey tints in early life; while immature examples 
of Nycticorax differ entirely from their parents, being brown with 
white or buff spotting above, and white with dusky stripes below. 
The bill, feet, naked lores, and orbits may be reddish, bluish, 
green, yellow, brown, or black. 
Balaeniceps vez, the Shoe-bill, of the White Nile, has a 
short crest, and is brownish-grey with blackish wings, tail, and 
feet, the bill being yellow with dusky mottlings. It usually 
forms large flocks, and frequents bushy morasses. The flight is 
Heron-hke, and the birds will often settle on trees; the young 
run about with extended wings and clattering bills... The food 
consists of fish, frogs, snakes, molluscs, and even carrion. A mere 
hole in the dry soil often contains the chalky white eggs, from two 
to twelve in number, but a lining of herbage is frequently added. 
Fra. 28.—Hammer-head. Scopus umbretta. x 4. (From Nature.) 
‘ Petherick, P.Z.S. 1860, pp. 195-198, and bis, 1859, p. 471. 
