APPENDIX IV. 
xliii 
bad omens from its motions: if it sit still, with its breast towards them 
until they have passed, it is a peculiarly good sign, and every thing is ex- 
pected to go on well during the course of the journey ; if its back be turned 
towards them, it is considered an Unpropitious sign, but not sufficiently sov 
as to create alarm ; but if it should fly away hastily on their approach, some 
of the most superstitious among them will immediately return back to their 
homes, aud vTait till a more favourable opportunity for commencing their 
expedition occur. From this circumstance, and the resemblance of its 
form to those so frequently met with among the hieroglyphics in Egypt, I 
am led to suspect that this species may answer to the sacred hawk of that 
country, which was venerated by the ancient inhabitants. 
Vast numbers of vultures are found throughout the country, which in the 
time of war follow the tracks of the armies. The largest of this genus which 
I met with seemed to be of a new species ; its head w^as of a dirty white, 
with a hood, or crest, of a spongy substance, covered with down on the 
back of it : the bill of a bright orange colour, strongly hooked, and the 
space under the orbit of the eye, and the whole of the neck bare and of a 
light flesh colour. It had a large ruff of dark feathers round the base of 
the neck, and the whole of the upper part of the body was of a cinereous 
brown colour. 
The ostrich (sogun) is found in the low districts north of Abyssinia, but 
very rarely within the actual limits of the country. Herns, ©f various spe- 
cies, are common in the marshy grounds ;* one species of which (Feras 
Sheitan, or the devil's horse,) was noticed by Jerome Lobo ; but his de- 
scription was so vague, that it was difficult to fix upon the class of birds to 
which it belonged. The Abyssinian horn-bill, called Abba Gumba in 
Tigre, and Erkoom in Amharic, frequents the cultivated lands of Tigre, 
and seems to be useful in destroying the grubs, worms, and wild bulbs, 
with which the land abounds. This bird builds its nest in the low branches 
of lofty trees, and is often seen sitting there in a kind of solitary indepen- 
* Hern, killed on the lyth of August on the plain of Seraw^. ^Crown of head black; 
beak of an orange colour ; wings at the tip of a glossy black, tvventy-four feathers in 
ieach; under the pinions bare, and bright red, as in the flamingo: tail forked, and four 
black feathers on each side, and eight white ones in the centre ; legs black ; outside of 
thighs black: rest of the bird white ; this bird when erect was nearly four feet high. 
