EPHIPPIORHYNCHUS 43 



Rivers ; the localities are well known to the natives who collect the 

 young for eating purposes. Livingstone relates how 175 unfledged 

 birds were brought to him at Chitlane's village in the Upper Zambesi 

 Valley, and that he found them very fat and delicious when roasted. 



Genus V. EPHIPPIORHYNCHUS. 



Type. 

 Ephippiorhynchus Bp., Consp. Av. ii, p. 106 (1855) E. senegalensis. 



Bill very long and strong, about the same length as the tarsus, 

 with a flat frontal plate (the saddle) at the base of the culmen, 

 which itself is straight and strongly compressed towards the tip ; 

 the line of the lower mandible bowed upwards beyond the genys ; 

 head and neck fully feathered except a narrow space round the 

 eye and the lores ; tail normal ; legs very long, the tarsus about 

 three times the length of the middle toe and claw ; covered all round 

 with elongated hexagonal shields. 



Only one species, confined to the Ethiopian Eegion, is assigned to 

 this genus. 



581. Ephippiorhynchus senegalensia. 



Saddle-bill, or African Jabiru. 



Mycteria senegalensis, Shaw, Trans. Linn. Soc. v, p. 35, pi. 3 (1798) ; 

 Gurney, Ibis, 1862, p. 34, 1865, p. 275 [Natal] ; Kirk, Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 333 ; La-yard, B. S. Afr. p. 317 (1867) ; id. Ibis, 1869, p. 376 ; 

 Holub fr Pelzeln, Orn. Slid- Afr. p. 288 (1882) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, 

 p. 365 [Mashonaland] ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 731 

 (1884) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1886, p. 297 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 159 (1896) ; 

 Woodward Bros., Natal B. p. 200 (1899) ; Millais, Breath from the 

 Veldt, 2nd eel, p. 214, with sketch (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, 

 p. 268 ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 441. 



Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, Gurney, in Andersson's B. Damaral. 

 p. 281 (1872) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 312 (1898) ; Eeiclienow, 

 Vog. Afr. i, p. 341 (1901) ; Gates, Cat. B. Eggs, ii, p. 108 (1902). 



Description. Adult. Head and neck all round, wing-coverts 

 (except the primary and some of the least marginal coverts), inner 

 secondaries, scapulars, upper tail-coverts and tail black, washed 

 with metallic gloss ; base of the tail-feathers white ; centre of the 

 back and the upper tail-coverts, and below from the fore neck to 

 the under tail-coverts pure white ; primaries, outer secondaries and 



