a ae ee 
Mr. J. Petherick on the Hippopotamus and Baleniceps. 137 
might not have terminated so favourably. A piece of the navel- 
string, 15 inches long, was still dangling to its body, and did not 
detach itself for several days afterwards ; from which I inferred that 
the time since its birth could not have extended over a day or two. 
The unexpected but welcome guest was reared on milk, and in its 
absence with meal and water, being treated with all the attention we 
could bestow on it, and is now, judging from its thriving condition, 
as grateful as its owner for the hospitality it is enjoying at your 
splendid Gardens in the Regent’s Park. 
So large a sheet of water as the “ Bahr il Gazal” will naturally 
attract great numbers of the feathered tribe ; and it was in this lake 
that I first made the acquaintance of a very handsome Stork (Mye- 
teria senegalensis) and the Baleniceps. 
Of both these rare birds I was fortunate enough to procure living 
specimens ; the former of which, with numerous rare animals, such 
as the Elephant, Rhinoceros, two species of Ant-Bears, a rare Mon- 
key, and I believe a new species of Antelope, unfortunately died 
during the long and arduous journey from Central Africa through 
ypt to the Mediterranean. 
The skin of the Stork, however, has been preserved, with a few 
other skins of birds, a remnant of a large collection made between 
the 5th and 15th degrees of N. latitude, but unfortunately lost in 
the Upper Nile cataracts of Nubia. The few skins alluded to as 
having been saved have been examined by your obliging Secretary, 
Mr. Sclater, to whom I am indebted for many acts of kindness since 
my return to England*. 
Two living specimens of Baleniceps out of six shipped at Khartoum 
(but perhaps out of a score partially reared, the first, as you are well 
aware, imported into Europe) have, almost against hope, survived the 
apparently insurmountable difficulties of the trying journey across 
nearly one-half the continent of Africa, and are at length, I am proud 
to say, safely housed in your commodious Gardens. 
The Baleniceps, although found only in or near water, is but 
rarely seen on the banks of the Nile, and then only during a short 
period of the year, when the interior is dried up, in the summer, 
during the short hot season preceding the rains. 
It prefers the natural tanks and morasses of the interior, where 
* Mr. Petherick’s skins are in a condition which renders their specific deter- 
mination rather difficult. The most noticeable are,— 
Haliaétus vocifer, juv. Peocephalus Meyeri, Riipp. 
Haicyon semicerulea (Gm.) ? Lemodon Vieilloti. 
Coracias abyssinica (Linn.). —— leucocephalus, De Fil. 
Merops egyptius? Edicnemus affinis, Riipp. ? 
abyssinicus. Cursorius, sp. ? 
Lanius macrocercus, De Fil. Falcinellus igneus 
Prionops cristatus, Riipp. Ardeola bubuleus. 
Laniarius chrysogaster, Sw. Nycticorax europeus. 
—— erythrogaster, Riipp. ? Anastomus lamelligerus. 
Lamprotornis purpuroptera, Riipp. Mycteria senegalensis. 
Notauges superbus, Riipp. Parra africana. 
Colius senegalensis ? Plectropterus Riippeliii, Sclater. 
Schizorhis zonura, Rupp. Sterna (2 sp.). 
—(P. L. S.) 
