THE WHALE-HEADED STOltK 067 



He strutted about the yard a long time after dark. When caught by the wings or other- 

 wise annoyed, he displayed his anger by no other sound than a loud and violent clattering 

 of the mandibles, nor did he attempt any act of aggression upon his captors with his 

 powerful beak. He would often run about the yard, spreading and fluttering his wings, 

 merely for exercise." 



The Australian Jabiru appears to be a very rare bird ; and as it is extremely wary, 

 and haunts wide expanses where but little cover can be found, it can with difficulty be 

 approached. The natives, with their eagle eyes, their snake-like movements, and the 

 exhaustless patience of men to whom time is of no value, manage to creep within range 

 of their weapons ; but even to them the task is a difficult one, and to Europeans almost 

 impracticable. One good sportsman, who succeeded at last in killing a Jabiru, followed 

 it for several days before he could get within long range of the suspicious bird. 



The food of this species mostly consists of fish, and eels seem to be the favourite diet. 

 Ordinary fish it swallows at once, but eels and gar-fish are battered about until dead before 

 the bird attempts to devour them. Nearly two pounds of eels and small fish have been 

 found in the stomach of a shot Jabiru. 



In its colouring the Australian Jabiru is a very handsome bird, and its movements are 

 quiet, majestic, easy and graceful. The large head and neck are rich shining green, 

 changing to rainbow tints of violet and purple upon the back of the head, the feathers 

 gleaming in the sun with a light metallic radiance. " The greater wing-coverts, scapularies, 

 lower part of the back and tail are dark brown mixed with rich bluish green, which 

 changes in the adult to a rich glossy green tinged with a golden lustre. The smaller 

 wing-coverts, lower part of the neck and back, and upper part of the breast are white 

 speckled with ashy brown, but become pure white in the adult : lower part of the breast, 

 thighs, and inner part of the wings, white. Eyes brilliant and hazel in colour. The legs 

 are blackish with a dark tinge of red, becoming of a bright red colour in the adult ; and 

 when the bird flies with the legs stretched out, looking like a long red tail. . . . My 

 specimen measures three feet ten inches to the top of the head, and is not yet full 

 grown ; they are said to attain four or five feet in height." The specimen belonging to 

 Dr. Bennett died after a captivity of about seven months, nearly four of which were 

 passed in Dr. Bennett's residence. The cause of his death was not known probably the 

 diet might have been injurious. 



THE singular WHALE-HEADED STOKK is the most striking of its tribe. 



This bird lives in Northern Africa, near the Nile, but is seldom seen on the banks of 

 that river, preferring the swampy districts to the running water. Mr. Petherick, who 

 first brought this bird to England, found it in the Rhol district, about latitude 5 to 8, in 

 a large tract of country about a hundred and fifty miles in extent, where the ground is 

 continually swelled by rains, and has by degrees modified into a huge morass, some parts 

 flooded with water, others blooming with vegetation, and the whole surrounded by thick 

 bush. "This spot," writes Mr. Petherick in his "Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa," 

 " is the favourite home of the Balreniceps." 



These birds are seen in clusters of from a pair to perhaps one hundred together, mostly 

 wading in the water ; and when disturbed, will fly low over its surface and settle at no 

 great distance. But if frightened and fired at, they rise in flocks high in the air, and after 

 hovering and wheeling around settle on the highest trees, and as long as their disturbers 

 are near, will not return to the water. Their roosting-place at night is, to the best of my 

 belief, on the ground. 



Their food is principally fish and water-snakes, which they have been seen by my 

 men to kill and devour. They will also feed on the intestines of dead animals, the 

 carcases of which they easily rip open with the strong hook of their upper bill. 



Their breeding-time is in the rainy season, during the months of July and August, 

 and the spot chosen is in the reeds or light grass immediately on the water's edge or on 

 some small elevated and dry spot entirely surrounded by water. The bird before laying 

 scrapes a hole in the earth, in which, without any lining of grass or feathers, the female 

 deposits her eggs. Numbers of these nests have been robbed by my men of both eggs 



