198 Captain Stanley S. Flower,


7. Colour. The description in the British Museum Cata¬

logue gives no idea of the beautiful colour of a live Slioebill. I

have noticed that visitors on seeing for the first time one of these

birds in the Giza Gardens frequently at once exclaim “ What is

that beautiful blue bird ? ” and then afterwards “ What an extra¬

ordinary large beak it has got.” The colour being evidently the

most striking feature.


The followingdescription is drawn up from the three birds

now (March 1908) living at Giza.


General colour a lovely pale blue-grey, more blue than

grey in the sunlight, most of the feathers witli a narrow white

margin, the large feathers of the wings and tail are a slightly

darker blue-grey ; the under surfaces are paler than the upper,

the abdomen and under tail-coverts the lightest; the front and

sides of the neck are ornamented by elongated pale blue-grey

plumes with dark-grey .centres.


The bill is horn-coloured but streaked and spotted with

grey, almost of the same shade as the grey of the bird’s feathers;

the legs and feet are bluish grey (black in skins); the claws are

black; the bare anterior space between the rami of the lower

mandible is pinkish grey.


Iris pale yellow : the white nictitating membrane is very

frequently passed over the surface of the eye.


The inside of the mouth and the little tongue are pink

flesh-colour.


A. L. Butler writes : “ Nestlings are covered with grey

down of a fulvous tinge.”


3? 'A- 3?


8. Voice. Although silent for hours on end, at times

the Shoebills can be very noisy birds. Ours in captivity when

alarmed or angry utter a shrill kite-like cry; when pleased they

have a half-laughing, half-choking voice which may be rendered

“ choua, choua, clioua, choua ”; and they also indulge in bill¬

snapping, making a regularly timed noise like the tapping sound

of a machine gun in action. As A. L. Butler says (in his Ibis

paper mentioned above) this clattering of the bill is “ the only

Stork-like trait” which Balaeuiceps in captivity shews.



