A Sacred Bird and a Carrion Bird. 47 



vermilion colour. At intervals along the river were beds 

 of shell fish (Aetheria) like oysters. The Nile fell so low 

 in 1900 that a great many of these " oysters " were left 

 high and dry, and were consequently decomposing. Yet 

 numbers of wading birds frequented the beds, and 

 amongst them none were more conspicuous than the 

 Marabou storks,H the African representative of the 

 adjutant of India. Not only were they conspicuous by 

 their size and form, but their dull-looking plumage, 

 their bare reddish-yellow heads, and their enormous 

 dirty bills, gave them a most revolting appearance. They 

 are carrion feeders, and seeing them smash open the 

 oyster shells with their massive and powerful bills one 

 could well understand how it was that after the battle of 

 Om Debreikat many a man, well accustomed to grue- 

 some spectacles, shuddered at the sight of corpses 

 mutilated by these birds. Another interesting member 

 of the stork family which frequented the " oyster " beds 

 was a sombre coloured bird with a thick whitish bill, 

 the mandibles of which are so grooved near their tips, 

 that an open slit is left when the bill is closed, a 

 peculiarity which has given the bird the name of open- 

 bill.** Of the many other birds frequenting the river 



If Leptoptilus crumeniferus, CUT. 

 ** Anastomus lamelligerus, Temm. 



