STORKS AND HERONS 



five feet high ; it has " a gaunt grey figure," with curly 

 tufts of feathers on its head ; it is characterized by " the 

 scowling expression of its eyes," and by the bill to which 

 we have referred. Captain Flower observed that it was 

 like a heron in its motionless attitude, its solitariness, 

 and in that when flying it suggested very much the large 

 Goliath heron (Ardea goliath}. Balczniceps frequents 

 morasses, and spears fishes and water serpents. It does 

 not seem to possess much in the way of a voice, but 

 snaps its bill as do storks. It nests either on the ground 

 or on low bushes near its haunts. Sir Harry Johnston, 

 after allowing one or two specimens to be procured for 

 the British Museum, at once put the bird on the Pro- 

 tected List ; so that this extraordinary creature, doubt- 

 less a relic of the past, has a future before it. When it 

 was first described so long ago as 1851, by the late John 

 Gould, the historian of the Birds of Australia, it was 

 recorded by him as a variety of the pelican type, prob- 

 ably on account of its bill. But this bill is really very 

 like that of the South American Cancroma, or boat-bill 

 (of which specimens are generally to be seen at the Zoo), 

 a most undoubted heron. There is, in fact, not the 

 shadow of a doubt that it is either a heron or a stork ; 

 but the question is, which ? The same uncertainty of 

 characters attaches to this bird as to Scopus, dealt with 

 on another page. The late Mr. A. D. Bartlett, that 

 excellent observer of birds, and superintendent of the 

 Society's Gardens, discovered a very significant fact 

 about the Balceniceps, which seemed at the time to 

 settle its place in the bird world. He found that it does 

 not possess those tufts of curious feathers which are 

 bunched in masses, and from which a powder is con- 

 tinually given off owing to the constant breaking off of 

 their tips, the " powder down patches " as they are 

 termed. These modified feathers occur among many 

 groups of birds, especially the herons, where it has been 



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