THE WHALE-HEADED STORK. 557 



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 sports- 

 man, who succeeded at last in killing a Jabiru, followed it 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 their favorite 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 pels and small fish have been found in 

 the stomach of a shot Jabiru. 



In its coloring 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 radiauce. "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 color. The legs are blackish with a dark tinge of red, becoming of 

 a bright red color 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. 1 '' The 

 specimen belonging to Dr. Bennett died after a captivity of about seven months, nearly four 

 of winch 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 Stork 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 found it in the 

 Khol 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 favorite home of the Bakenieeps. 



"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, both of eggs and young, but the young 

 birds so taken have invariably died. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to rear them, con- 

 tinued for two years, the eggs were eventually hatched under hens, which were procured at a 

 considerable distance from the Raik negroes. 



"As soon as the hens began to lay, and in due time to sit, a part of their eggs w T ere replaced 

 with half the number of those of the Balseniceps, as fresh as possible from the nest, the locality 

 of Avhich was previously known, and several birds were successfully hatched. These young 

 birds ran about the premises of the camp, and, to the great discomfort of the hens, would per- 

 sist in performing all sorts of unchickenable manoeuvres, with their large beaks and extended 

 wings, in a small artificial pool constantly supplied with water by several negresses retained 



