The Whale-headed Stork 43 



perseverance I at last succeeded in hatching some eggs 

 under hens, which, at a considerable distance from Gala 

 Shambyl, I procured from the Raik Negroes. As soon as 

 I got the hens to lay and in due time to sit, by replacing 

 several of their eggs with half the number of those of the 

 Balceniceps, as fresh as possible from the nest, the locality 

 of which was previously known, I eventually succeeded in 

 hatching several birds. These ran about the premises of 

 my camp, and, to the discomfort of the poor hens, would 

 persist in performing all sorts of unchicken-like manoeuvres 

 with their large beaks and wings in a small artificial 

 pool, constantly supplied with water by several negresses 

 retained in my service for their especial benefit. Negro 

 boys of the tribe (the Raik) were also employed to 

 supply their little pond with live fish, upon which, and 

 occasionally on the intestines of animals killed for our use 

 and chopped into small pieces, they were reared. As may 

 be supposed, the birds became the pets of my ' Bizouks,' 

 as I frequently called my Khartoumers ; and as they grew 

 up, with extended wings and a rattle-like noise produced 

 by the snapping of their bills, they would follow them 

 round the large enclosure of my camp. The eggs are 

 white, or bluish-white with a chalky covering, and on 

 being held up to the light, the lining is seen to be of a dark 

 green." 



I cannot conclude this chapter on wonderful birds 

 without a reference to our old friend the Dodo (Didus 

 ineptus). This quaint creature lived on the island of 

 Mauritius, where it was plentiful a little more than three 

 hundred years ago. Its unwieldy size and feebly developed 

 wings deprived the poor Dodo of any chance of survival on 

 the earth, as it was not able to fly and so escape from its 

 enemies; and the survivors of this interesting and anomalous 

 form of bird-life were annihilated by the sailors who visited 

 the island and brought cats and pigs with them, which 



