Aug. 17, 1883. 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



105 



the under-side of its leavers so white and shiny, as to be 

 called the Looking-glass Tree. This appearance is caused 

 by sun-rayed hairs, of which a sketch is given. 



Sketches are given of various hairs, with their names 

 and magnification employed, drawn from the objects by 

 Mrs. H. Slack. 



THE SHOEBILL. 



THE Shoebill (BaUenicejis re.v), a singular African bird, 

 is a representative of the family Bal;enicipid;i'. It 

 has a thick neck and large head, and a huge bill, which 

 from its resemblance in size and shape to a shoe has gained 

 for it the title of shoebill. 



_ Wood says : " The bill is enormously expanded at each 

 side of the beak, the edges of the upp^r mandible overhang 

 those of the lower, and its tip is furnislied with a large 

 hook, which is well suited for tearing to pieces the sub- 

 stances on which the bird feeds." It has very long legs 

 and large feet whose long toes are provided with powerful 

 nails, broad and long wings, and a short tuft of feathers at 

 the back of the head. 



The general colour of the plumage is a beautiful ash- 



grey ; the edges of the large feathers are bordered with 

 light grey. The eye is bright yellow, the bill horn colour, 

 the foot black. 



Young birds are a rusty, brownish grey. The length of 

 the male bird is a hundred and forty centimetres. The 

 female is considerably smaller. These giant birds of the 

 morass, according to the observations of Heuchlin and 

 Schweinfurth, live by pairs or in scattered companies — as 

 far as possible distant from all human settlements, in the 

 huge, almost impenetrable morasses of the White Nile and 

 some of its tributarie?, between the fifth and eighth 

 degrees of north latitude. It has not been observed around 

 the other waters of inner Africa. Usually this bird is 

 seen standing fishing in the pools, in the midst of these 

 swamps. It is very shy and cautious, and at the approach 

 (if man it rises with a loud rustling noise, and flies low 

 over the reeds, which soon hide it from sight. 



If it becomes frightened by the report of a gun, it rises 

 high in the air, circles and hovers around for a long time, 

 and will not return to the water as long as it suspects the 

 presence of man. It is seldom seen on the banks of rivers. 

 When walking it carries its body in a horizontal position, 

 and rests its heavy head on its crop. When flying it draws 

 in its neck. It makes a loud, rattling, cracking sound with 

 its bill, which puts one in mind of the clatter of the storks. 

 Its nourishment consists principally of fish, and it is often 

 seen standing up to its breast in water, and thrusting its 

 powerful bill suddenly under the water, in the same 

 manner as herons do, in order to capture the fish. Petherick 

 asserts that the Shoebill catches and eats water-snakes, and 

 that it also feeds on the intestines of dead animals, the 

 carcasses of which it easily rips open with the strong hook 

 of its upper bill. 



Their breeding-time is in the rainy season, during the 

 months of July and August, and the spot chosen for their 

 nest is in the reeds immediately on the water's edge, or on 

 some small, elevated, dry spot entirely surrounded by water. 

 It builds from the dry stalks of the swamp, plants, sod, and 

 mud, a very firm nest often a yard in height. Heuchlin 

 says the eggs are comparatively small, about three inches 

 long and two inches thick ; the shell is finely granulated. 

 — From Brehin's "Animal Life." 



THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 



By Thomas Foster. 



{Continued from page 67.) 

 THE EVOLUTION OF CONDUCT. 



AS structures are evolved, so are the functions which 

 structures subserve. And as the functions of the 

 body are evolved so are tliose combinations of bodily 

 actions evolved which we include under the general term 

 conduct. 



We are considering the functions of the body when we 

 are inquiring into such actions of the various structures 

 internal and external as involve internal processes, simple 

 or complex. But when we begin to consider combinations 

 of actions externally manifested we are dealing with 

 conduct, — except only in the case of such actions as are 

 independent of control. 



But at the outset of the evolution of conduct even this 

 distinction is scarcely to be recognised. Every external 

 combination of actions is in the lower types of animal life 

 a part of conduct, — at least of such conduct as is possible 

 in the lowest orders of creatures. Evolution of conduct 

 begins with the gradual development of purpose where 



