732 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
frequent the lagoons and marshes at the mouths of the rivers. If 
one of the pair happens to get shot, its place is not supplied by 
another, but the solitary bird may be seen feeding by himself, when 
he attempts to make friends with the Violet Storks, which seem to 
be rather afraid of their gigantic relation. Occasionally when the 
pair are feeding together, they stop suddenly and skip or dance 
round and round in a small circle, then stopping to bow to each other, 
again resume their quaint dance. Their food consists of crabs, 
shrimps, and small fish.” During Mr. Jameson’s expedition it was 
seen but not procured in Mashoona Land. Sir John Kirk states 
that it was not uncommon on the Zambesi and Shiré Rivers, but was 
more frequent on Lake Nyassa and the River Rovuma. “ It feeds,” 
he says “on snakes, frogs, and fish. On the Rovuma it was seen 
catching fish in shallow water, by running forward rapidly, so as to 
make the fish rush past it, when it caught them, keeping its bill all 
the while in the water. They are commonly found in pairs—never 
in large flocks.” Mr. Andersson saw it occasionally in Damara 
Land and Ondonga; and the Rey. C. H. Hahn, a most excellent 
authority, informed him that, when stationed at New Barmen, he 
twice saw this species in that locality. 
Senor Anchieta has procured the species on the bank of the 
Cunene, as well as at Caconda in Benguela, where it is called Hombo. 
White ; head and neck black, glossed with bronze-green ; scapulars, 
and wing and tail-feathers, raven-black; base of bill to nostril, 
bright crimson ; as is also the skin round the eye and under the bill 
(the bill from the nostril for 34 inches is black; from thence to the 
tip bright crimson) ; frontal shield, bright yellow ; shanks and tarsi 
black; knees and feet brick-dust red ; the bare spot on the breast, 
crimson; iris bright yellow. Length, 43’; wing, 23”; tail, 10’; 
tarsus, 114”; bill, 12”. 
The description of the soft parts is taken from a note of Mr. 
Ayres. Mr. Gurney (Ibis, 1865, p. 275) points out that the yellow 
eye is a sign of the female bird, and that the male has the iris deep 
brown. 
Fig. Temminck, Pl. Col. 64. 
710. ANASTOMUS LAMELLIGERUS, T'emm. African Open-bill. 
This curious bird is not uncommon about the Zambesi; and the 
specimen from which the above description was taken was brought 
