on the Shoebill.



195



The journey from Khartoum North to Wadi Haifa by

goods train was more interesting than pleasant. The three Shoe-

bills were by 110 means my only care ; with the assistance of

some of the Egyptian keepers from Giza I had also to look after

four Giraffes, nine valuable Antelopes, a Nuer Ox, some Sheep

and Goats, a Lion, a Leopard, three Servals, a Caracal-Lynx, two

Chitas, two Genet-Cats, two Porcupines, an Ant-bear, an Eagle,

five Secretary Birds, four Geese, a Bralnniny Duck, four Cranes,

two Ostriches, five Tortoises and a Crocodile.


The truck in which the Slioebills (and I) travelled had a

single roof of corrugated iron, and became unpleasantly warm.

I do not know what the temperature rose to in that truck, but

the day we passed Berber I was told that the thermometer in the

shade was 118 0 Fahrenheit. The Shoebills required much coax¬

ing to feed under the new conditions of a railway journey, and

repeatedly deposited their once, or more often, swallowed food

on the truck floor ; the result being that during the latter part of

the journey I was constantly reminded of the remark of Trincule

“a very ancient and fish-like smell.”


By telegraphing beforehand I had tried to arrange for a

supply of fresh-caught Nile fish to be ready at the principal

stations near the river : on one stage no fish being forthcoming I

was reduced to feeding the Shoebills on tinned prawns.


At Wadi Haifa the ruminant animals (although in good

health and free from infection) were subjected to the formality of

twenty-one days quarantine ; so I left them with their keepers to

be fetched later, and with the remainder of my collection, in¬

cluding the Shoebills, took steamer to Shellal (Aswan). From

Shellal we travelled by the narrow gauge railway to Luxor, and

from Luxor to Cairo comfortably by express train, reaching Giza

on the 28th of May, 1902; so that now (20th March, 1908) these

three Shoebills have been five years, nine months and twenty-

three days in captivity at the Giza Gardens, and fortunately

appear to be all still thriving.


% % %


4. Affinities. Gould wrote: “ This is evidently the

Grallatorial type of the Peleccinidcie .” Other ornithologists con¬

sidered it the African representative of the South American



