CICONIIOE LEPTOPTILUS - 45 



Saddle-bill ; Ayres states that it is a scarce bird in Natal,* though 

 a pair may occasionally be seen at low water on the mud banks in 

 the centre of the bay, and they also frequent the lagoons and 

 marshes at the mouths of rivers ; when a pair are feeding together 

 they sometimes stop suddenly and skip or dance round and round 

 in a small circle, then stop and bow to each other and again resume 

 their quaint dance. Their food consists of fishes, frogs, crabs and 

 shrimps, and they are generally seen in pairs, though Millais states 

 that he saw a very large number all together on the Lower 

 Nuanetsi in the south-east corner of Khodesia. 



This Stork is not definitely known to breed in South Africa, 

 but there are eggs of it in the British Museum said to have come 

 from South Africa ; they are dull white, slightly glossy, coarse in 

 texture and covered with minute pores ; they measure about 

 3-05 x 2-23. 



Mr. Millar came across a number of these Storks in the lower 

 Zambesi valley ; they frequent pans and are also found in the open 

 plains, but are shy and difficult to approach. Their flight is gener- 

 ally low, though they sometimes circle to a great height in the air. 

 They become easily domesticated and readily catch food, when 

 thrown to them, with their enormous bills. 



Genus VI. LEPTOPTILUS. 



Type. 

 Leptoptilos Lesson, Traite d'Orn., p. 583 (1831) ... L. javanicus. 



Bill large and stout but with no marked " saddle " plate as in 

 Ephippiorhynchus, the culrnen straight throughout and the line of 

 the lower mandible but slightly upcurved beyond the genys ; whole 

 head and neck and the upper median portion of the breast bare of 

 feathers, but sometimes covered, especially in young birds, with a 

 sparse woolly down ; from the lower part in the fore-neck depends 

 a pouch of skin, the interior of which is in communication with the 

 air-sac system, and can be inflated at the will of the bird ; the 

 pouch is not connected with the crop in any way ; tail-feathers 

 normal, under tail-coverts composed of some downy plumes ; legs 

 long, tarsus about the same length as the bill and more than twice 

 the length of the middle toe and claw, covered with elongated 

 hexagonal scales all round. 



* Mr. Millar tells me he has never seen it or even heard of it in Natal of late 

 years. 



