on the Shoebill.



193



broke out on the “ Abu Klea,” but, owing to the well-disciplined

crew and soldiers on board, was fortunately extinguished before

any serious damage was done : the Shoebill skin had been hanging

to dry under the quarter-deck awnings, which were completely

burnt, and my relief can be imagined when it was subsequently

found, little the worse but for soot and water and scorched feet.

This skin eventually reached Cairo in safety, and Lord Cromer

had it mounted by Rowland Ward & Co.


Other members of the same expedition, Capt. H. N. Dunn,

R.A.M.C. and Lieut. W. B. Drury, R.N. also succeeded in obtain¬

ing specimens of the Shoebill; and in, I believe, the same year,

1900, the late Mr. W. G. Doggett shot some near Entebbe, in

Uganda.


When the Sudan Game Preservation Ordnance came into

force the Shoebill was, very properly, made a protected species,

and remains so; and the bird has also Government protection in

the territories of Uganda.


More than one person has told me that the Shoebill must

have been known to the ancient Egyptians, as it was represented

in.their mural paintings at Saklcara or Beni-Hassan. In the

former locality I have so far been unable to find any representa¬

tion of a bird that could be referred to this species, the latter

locality I have had no opportunity of visiting.


% # #


2. Name. Throughout the animal kingdom there have

been, and are, great differences of opinion among specialists as

to the most correct scientific names for the various species; for¬

tunately in the case of the subject of the present article, all

authorities appear to agree, and call the bird Balaeniceps rex:

Gould.


In English it is called the Shoebill or Wliale-headed Stork :

apparently no popular French name is in use as in Prof. Perrier’s

recently published “ La Vie des Animaux.” Monsieur Julien

Salmon (“ Les Oiseaux,” II. p. 275) merely translates the scientific

name, calling the bird “ Le Baldniceps roi.” Its application in

German is “ Der Scliuhschnabel.”


Its Arabic name is “ Abu markub,” literally “ Father of a

slipper” ; the upper mandible resembling in form, but inverted,



