THE SHOEBILL 149 



visiting the Cairo Gardens remember only this 

 quaint bird, that it has become one of the most 

 popular birds of the country, and is better known 

 than very many of the true native Egyptian birds. 



Captain Stanley S. Flower says " he saw per- 

 haps as many as forty in one day" during a trip 

 on the White Nile. "They were to be seen 

 usually singly, sometimes two or three within a 

 score of yards of each other, standing about on the 

 edges of the marsh, always in the same attitude. 

 In the motionless way in which they stand, their 

 solitariness, and their flight, they are more like a 

 Heron than a Stork. In fact, at a distance, unless 

 you can see the bill, it is impossible to tell them 

 when on the wing from the Goliath Heron." 



Mr. A. L. Butler says of it in its native wilds : 

 " They seem of a very sluggish nature, and I sel- 

 dom observed them on the wing unless put up by 

 our steamer." And as to its food, he writes : " I 

 have never known it attempt to eat shell-fish ; the 

 bird is a fisher pure and simple, but doubtless, like 

 a Heron, will eat any small mammal or young 

 water-bird that comes within reach." Heron-like, 

 Balaeniceps, instead of searching for its prey, waits 

 patiently for it to come to it. It is generally 

 to be seen standing motionless on newly-burnt 



