42 CICONinXSJ ANASTOMUS 



Distribution. The Open-bill is found throughout tropical Africa 

 and Madagascar from the Soudan and Abyssinia southwards. It 

 does not seem to have been met with in the forest districts of the 

 West Coast. 



In South Africa this species is a very abundant resident 

 along the Zambesi Valley and in the neighbourhood of Lake Ngami ; 

 south -of this it is only a straggler". It has not hitherto been 

 recorded from Cape Colony. 



The following are ascertained localities : Natal near Lady- 

 ^ smith, March (Feilden) ; Transvaal Potchefstroom, February, 

 twice, recorded (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland Lake regions (Andersson), 

 otA, Nocana, July (Fleck); Khodesia Chobe Eiver (Bradshaw in S. A. 

 Mus.), Makabusi Eiver near Salisbury, June (Marshall) ; German 

 South-west Africa Ondonga, resident (Andersson), Ovaquenyama, 

 December (Eriksson in S. A. Mus.) ; Zambesi Valley (Kirk, Living- 

 stone, Holub and Bradshaw). 



FIG. 12. Head of Anastomus lamelligerus. x 



Habits. This bird, remarkable alike for its curiously shaped bill 

 which, owing to the bowed shape of the upper and lower mandible 

 cannot be closed in its middle portion, and for the almost horny 

 stiff projections of the metallic breast feathers, is found in marshy 

 localities, especially along the banks of rivers ; they are usually seen 

 in considerable flocks on the Zambesi, where they spend their days 

 in the shallows fishing, while at night they roost in the trees along 

 the bank. They live on small fishes, frogs, crabs, and other water 

 animals, but their favourite food consists of freshwater mollusca, 

 especially those of the genus Ampullaria, the shells of which they 

 crack with their powerful beaks. They breed in large societies 

 among the reeds in the swamps between the Zambesi and the Chobe 



