SHOE-DILL. 



171 



all cxliiliiting tlie same fovm and structuiT, and some of thorn containing at least a large 

 cartload of sticks. The latter author also informs us that the nests are so solid that 

 they will bear the weight of a large, heavy man on the domed roof without collapsing. 

 Such an enormous structure is hnilt Ijy a single jiair, and the bird itself is not larger 

 than our night-herons. 



Remarks similar to those which preceded the foregoing family might equally well 

 apply to the present one, the BAL.ENiriprriD.E. This too is African, and com])rises a 

 single species, which in a somewhat similar way is intermediate between storks and 



't'f^^^ 



Fkj. &4. — Sropua umhntln. umbrelte. 



herons. Consider.able diversity of o])inion e.\ists as to its real .affinities. Some autliors 

 make it unconditionally a lieron ; others regard it as separate ; others again unite it 

 with tlie umbrctte. The anatomy of its soft parts are as yet unknown, so our con- 

 clusions have to be based upon the skeleton and the external characters. It 

 appears to us that the shoe-bill (Balfeniceps) is intermediate between storks and 

 herons, but as the umbrette inclines towards the storks, so does tlie shoe-bill to the 

 herons. The two bir<ls themselves are also rather closely related, jicrhaps more .so 

 ittler se than with either storks or herons pniper. There seems, however, to lie 



