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. 



BalacniceiJS rex, 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-like, 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. 





.^ 



^l VI 







i:\ 



Fig. 28. Hammer-head. Scoims 2imbretta. x ^. (From Nature.) 



' Petherick, P.Z.S. 1860, i.p. 195-198, and Ibis, 1859, p. 471. 



