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EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



We have received the Fourth Annual Beport of the Director, 

 Capt. Stanley S. Flower, on the Zoological Gardens of Giza, near 

 Cairo. The following is a most interesting note on the Shoebill, or 

 Whale-headed Stork (Balmiiceps rex) : — 



" Two individuals were purchased by the Zoological Society of 

 London in April, 1860 {vide P. Z. S. 1860, p. 243), from Mr. John 

 Petherick, then H.B.M. Consul for the Sudan, who had obtained them 

 in the Sudan, having hatched them from eggs ' procured from the Eaik 

 negroes .... at a considerable distance from Gaba Shambyl ' ; these 

 two were the survivors ' out of six Balmiiceps shipped at Khartoum, 

 but perhaps out of a score partially reared ' {vide op. cit. pp. 195-199). 

 These were the first specimens of this most extraordinary bird ever 

 brought alive out of the Sudan, and, as far as is known, no others 

 have been till the three, now living in the Giza Zoological Gardens, 

 were brought down forty-two years later. In the autumn of 1901 

 Col. W. S. Sparkes brought a live Balteniceps from the Bahr-el-Ghazal 

 to. Khartoum, where it is still living in the Governor-General's Palace 

 garden. This is the only other specimen known to be living in 

 captivity. The three birds now at Giza, presented by Slatin Pasha 

 and Bimbashi Fell, were obtained by the donors from the Bahr-el- 

 Djur, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Sudan, and were kindly 

 looked after by Mr. A. L. Butler, Superintendent, Sudan Game Pre- 

 servation Department, till handed over to the Giza Zoological Gardens 

 keepers at Khartoum, May 15th, 1902." 



A curious accident recently happened near Nantwich. While the 

 butler of Mr. A. N. Hornby, the well-known cricketer, was cycling 

 downhill he received a severe blow on the neck, which knocked him 

 off his machine. He was stunned, but, recovering himself, found on 

 the road where he was struck a dead Partridge. The bird had got up 

 suddenly, and in its swift flight over the road had charged into the 

 cyclist and broken its neck. It is by no means an uncommon occur- 

 rence for a Sparrow to fly against a cyclist, but it has rarely been 

 known to happen to a Partridge. — Sun, 



