DOWN THE NILE ; THE GIANT ELAND 525 



which stretched back from the river for miles on either 

 hand, broken here and there by flats of slightly higher 

 land with thorn-trees. The whale-billed storks were fairly 

 common, and were very conspicuous as they stood on the 

 quaking surface of the marsh, supported by their long- 

 toed feet. After several fruitless stalks and much follow- 

 ing through the thick marsh grass, sometimes up to our 

 necks in water, I killed one with the Springfield at a dis- 

 tance of one hundred and thirty yards, and Kermit, after 

 missing one standing, cut it down as it rose with his Win- 

 chester 30-40. These whalebills had in their gizzards 

 not only small fish but quite a number of the green blades 

 of the marsh grass. The Arabs call them the "Father of 

 the Shoe," and Europeans call them shoebills as well as 

 whalebills. The Bahr el Ghazal was alive with water-fowl, 

 saddle-bill storks, sacred and purple ibis, many kinds of 

 herons, cormorants, plover, and pretty tree ducks which 

 twittered instead of quacking. There were sweet-scented 

 lotus water-lilies in the ponds. A party of waterbuck cows 

 and calves let the steamer pass within fifty yards without 

 running. 



We went back to Lake No, where we met another 

 steamer, with aboard it M. Solve, a Belgian sportsman, a 

 very successful hunter, whom we had already met at Lado; 

 with him were his wife, his sister, and his brother-in-law, 

 both of the last being as ardent in the chase, especially of 

 dangerous game, as he was. His party had killed two 

 whalebills, one for the British Museum and one for the 

 Congo Museum. They were a male and female who 

 were near their nest, which contained two downy young; 

 these were on M. Solve's boat, where we saw them. The 

 nest was right on the marsh water; the birds had bent the 

 long blades of marsh grass into an interlacing foundation, 

 and on this had piled grass which they had cut with their 

 beaks. These beaks can give a formidable bite, by the 

 way, as one of our sailors found to his cost when he rashly 

 tried to pick up a wounded bird. 



