150 
Birdti of GuDibia. 
The adult Tjird is mainlj' bluuk and white, the head, aeck, 
wing -coverts and back being black gio.ssed with purplisli, the rump, 
the greater portion of the tlights and under parts white. The beak, 
the lower outline of which is distinctly bowed, while the upper is- 
straight or with just a suggestion of an upward tilt, is red at the 
base and the point with a broad black band between tiie two red 
portions. Above the nostrils, at the junction of the beak and fore- 
head, is a 'bright yellow saddle-shaped shield, whence the bird gets 
its name. Round the eyes and 'base of the lower mandible the skin is 
bare and bright red in colour, and from each side of the lowest 
part of this bare patch hangs a little fleshy tag of tiie same colour. 
The legs are black with reddish joints. In length they measure 
nearly live feet, that is much bigger than the Marabout, and they 
look their size, too, both on the wing and on foot, and when seen 
near a Marabout literally tower above him. Their Mandingo name is 
Hello. ^ 
Leptoptilus Grunwm/vrun. MARABOUT STORK. 
llange. Tropical Africa. (H.L.) 
This well-known rather rejjulsive looking Stork is common 
nearly all over the Gambia, though rather local in its breeding haunts, 
which with us are always on large trees, generally silk -cottons, in 
or near native villages. The central portion of the South ' Bank 
is probably the district most affected by breeding Marabouts, and 
here a greai many of the villages boast a breeding colony,' but 
outside this district there are many other breeding places, though 
nowhere else are they quite so numerous. In the villag^es the birds 
are respected by the natives, who would resent any attempt to 
disturb them there, as they regard their presence as a sign of luck 
and peace, but when abroad nobody hesitates to shoot them and after- 
wards to eat the flesh, though this, one would think, cannot be par- 
ticularly palatable. The people do not seem to mind in the least the 
awful mess these birds make beneath their nest-trees, — these and the 
ground below being whitened with the birds dung. If this happens 
to be very excessive and actually in some one's yard, that nit may 
be left unoccupied, but if it only falls in the street or " buntaba," 
(the meeting -place in the centre of every Mandingo town), no one 
seems to care at all or even to notice the stink it causes. Young 
birds, too, frequently fall out of the nests, and these the boys gener- 
ally try to rear up until they can lly and rejoin their relatives. 
Once I was giver aii unbroken egg Avhich had fallen out of a nest 
and into the pocket of the big gown of an old man Who was sitting doz- 
ing in the "buntaba." ,Th(ese breeding tnees are in many places also 
occupied by other birds, such as Vultures, and I'elicans, which live 
in amity with the Marabouts, though there may be an occasional 
quarrel,— mostly beak -clashing and wing-flapping— about nest sites 
or di'sirable building material between some of the Pelicans and 
IMarabouts. The eggs of 'the latter are dull white. 
jNIarabouts are apparently carrion- feeders by choice, but tliey 
